#Second Las Vegas Residency

[kiss-inthekitchen]

same sky | spencer reid

pairing: spencer reid x reader

a late night phone call with Spencer. unruly amounts of fluff. no gender identifiers in this one. apologies to residents of las vegas, i did insult your city's aesthetics. i had to do it. for the plot

word count: 2k

notes: this is a rework of a very old fic i used to have up on ao3 by the same name. it's the second in a series of fics i've updated from my vault of oldies :) this one's for the girlies who liked the banter in no vacancy <3 oops! all banter

“I miss you,” you say into your cell phone, standing on the back porch and gazing out at the sky. It’s late, but you can’t sleep. Spencer has been gone on a case for the better part of a week, and you don’t sleep as well without him. 

“I miss you, too. But I’ll be home soon,” Spencer replies, keeping his voice low.  

“Is everyone else asleep?”

“Yeah. It’s been a long day.”

“Where are you right now?” Even though you aren’t in danger of waking anyone up, you find yourself mirroring Spencer's tone. 

“Best guess, somewhere over New Mexico.” They’ve been in the air about an hour, and given their trajectory, he’s pretty sure he’s right. Spencer is seated at the edge of the couch, his back against the arm of it and a blanket thrown over his legs, barely covering his mismatching-socked feet. 

“How come you’re still up?”

“I wanted to talk to you,” he says. Somehow, he can feel you smiling across the line. It makes him smile, too. He doesn’t ask why you’re awake when it’s even later where you are; he knows already. "What are you doing?”

“Looking up at the stars.”

“You know, you won’t be able to see me up here.”

“Ha ha.”

“Here, I’ll open the shade on the plane window. At least we can share the same view.”

“Hm. Almost like we’re together,” you hum. 

His heart aches. It’s only been a few days and he still can’t stand it. “Almost.”

For a minute, neither of you speak, looking out at the sky from two different time zones.

“When I wake up tomorrow morning, you’ll be here, right?” 

“Mmhm. Maybe even before that,” he responds, a low, soothing hum in your ear.

“Should I stay up until you get here?” you already know what he'll say, but you kinda like the idea of it anyway.

“No, no, it’s at least another four hours. Don’t worry about it. When you wake up, I’ll be there.”

“Sounds good. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

You’d intended to let him go after just a quick call once you realized that the rest of the team were resting not too far from him, but you don’t want to hang up. He doesn’t make any moves to do so either, wanting to hear your voice as much as you want to hear his. “So, how was Tucson?”

“Oh, you know. Hot. Desert-y. Lots of murder.”

“Less murder now.” 

“Yeah.” 

His voice sounds strained. He doesn’t like indulging in a sense of accomplishment after closing a case, doesn’t ever feel like he’s done enough. He shows up too late and does too little, and then he gets to leave while the families of the victims have to pick up the pieces. You understand why he doesn’t like to think about the work that way, but you’ve tried to remind him that the good he does is incalculable; how many lives saved, how many tragedies avoided. It’s all you can do. 

You pivot a little, not wanting him to get too caught up. “I remember, when I first moved to Virginia, I was so shocked at how green everything was. I swore I’d never seen that much green in my life.”

“I had a similar experience,” he says, fondly, aware of your tactics. 

“Oh, I can only imagine. I’ve been to Vegas. It’s icky.”

“Icky?” he asks, laughing at your word choice. 

“I mean, no offense, but… it’s kinda ugly.”

“Wow, okay, insult my hometown, why don’t you.”

You laugh. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’re right.”

“I know,” you sigh. “Always am.”

“Well, statistically, you actually have a seventy-two percent chance of being right, which is still impressive, but hardly a flawless track record.”

“Spencer Reid coming in hot with the stats. I love when you talk numbers to me.” 

“I don’t think we’d have gotten very far if you didn’t.” 

“But I think I should be right more often than that.” 

“Are you asking me to fudge the numbers?” he asks with put-upon shock. 

“I’m just saying, maybe you’ve got it wrong.” 

“Oh, so you dare to challenge the accuracy of my eidetic memory? Or is it the statistics that you think I’ve calculated incorrectly?” 

“This is affecting my score, isn’t it?” 

“I’ll have to factor it in. You understand.” 

You giggle, and Spencer starts to feel some warmth come back into him after too many days of stress, doubt, and destruction. He hadn’t been able to talk to you nearly as much as he wanted. And it was hard to talk to you on certain cases, to allow you to make him feel lighter when reality was so dark. When he felt so much weight on his shoulders, when he should be focusing on the profile and apprehending the unsub and… sometimes he just didn’t feel like he deserved to have that weight lifted by you, even for a little while. 

“Spence?” 

“Will you go inside?” he asks, his tone full of something like reverence for you. “Please?”

“If you insist,” you sigh, already opening the door. 

“I do. I do insist, very forcefully.” 

“I’m already inside with the door locked.” 

“Man, I’m good.” 

“Mmhm.”

“Going to bed?”

“Yeah. Will you talk to me for a few more minutes?” you ask, sliding under the covers. Spencer hears the slip of fabric as you pull them up over your shoulders, and it sharpens the ache he feels to be home with you already. 

“I’ll talk to you for the rest of the night, if you want me to.” 

“No, I don’t wanna keep you awake, too.” 

“I probably won’t get much sleep regardless.” 

“I don’t condone that,” you say, your frown evident in your voice. 

“Noted,” he replies, though he sounds apologetic. 

Four hours feels an eternity too long to wait. You miss Spencer, and you hate how tired he sounds. You want to fix things for him. You want to run your fingers through his hair til he falls asleep and you want to make sure his dreams are peaceful when he does. 

“What do you wanna do when you’re back?” you ask, hoping that planning for it will make the time go faster. 

“Oh, I’m taking a shower and getting right into bed. And you can’t make me get up.” 

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“I’m serious. Don’t ask me to do a single other thing cause I won’t do it.” 

You laugh. “For the whole day?” 

“Probably. And you better not go anywhere either. We could both use the rest.” 

“Okay, rest day all day.” 

“We can order Thai though. So we’ll get up for that. But even then, it’s just to sit on the couch.” 

“Maybe the floor.” 

“I will also accept floor,” he concedes, and then it occurs to him that you might’ve been asking because you want to do something with him. “Is there something you wanted to do the next day though?” 

“Well... the saucer magnolias are blooming at the Smithsonian again.” 

“Say no more.” 

You sigh wistfully. “You’re my favorite boyfriend I’ve ever had.” 

“Well, I should hope so,” he says, smiling. “You’re my favorite, too.” 

“Aren’t I the only partner you’ve ever had?” 

“Ha ha. I had a girlfriend in college.” 

“Spencer, you were like sixteen in college.”

“I wasn’t sixteen the entire time,” you hear the eye roll in his voice, “I have three PhD’s, it took me a little while.” 

“Well, who is this girl? Do I need to beat her up?” you joke. 

“No,” he laughs. “You are my favorite, after all. She wasn’t very nice to me.” 

“Okay… so you told me not to beat her up but then gave a reason why I should?” 

“Please don’t beat up my ex-girlfriend. I do appreciate your violent impulses though.” 

“Mm, okay. As long as you know I could.” 

“Sure, angel. You’re very scary,” he placates. 

You let out a little gremlin laugh. 

“Oh, and you’re delirious,” he notes, an amused lilt to his tone. 

“Delirious because I miss you,” you sing, dragging out the ‘you’. 

“God, where did I even find a weirdo like you,” Spencer laughs. 

“I found you. You attracted me with your peculiar aura and soulful eyes. Trapped me in your… fucking what’s-it-called. Tractor beam.” 

“You know, the term tractor beam was actually coined by science fiction author E.E. Smith in 1931 as an updated version of his original term ‘attractor beam.’” 

“Hmm, yup. You caught me in that.” 

“Did you call my eyes soulful?” he asks, seemingly just processing that part. 

“Oh, you don’t like my adjective choice? Next you’ll have a problem with me calling your aura peculiar.” 

“I mean… I don’t know that I loved it.” 

“Here he goes fishing for compliments,” you sigh, rolling over to your other side and creating a bunch of shuffling noise on the line. Spencer wrinkles his nose, holding the phone a little farther from his ear until he hears you speaking again. “Okay, your eyes are big and brown and beautiful and they contain a standard unremarkable amount of soul, and your aura is also really regular. Regular Reid, that’s what they call ya.” 

He’s frowning, you can practically see it, but he’s also fighting off an amused smile. “Well, that one started off nice, at least.” 

“God! You’re so difficult. My boyfriend is sooo difficult. Why don’t you come home to me first and then I’ll come up with some more adequate compliments?” 

“I’m going to hold you to that.” 

The two of you talk for a little while longer, with you telling Spencer about the new coffee shop you’d tried out and how their lavender latte actually tastes like lavender, which is basically unheard of. Spencer tells you about the standoff between him and an all too curious roadrunner that he swears was trying to get into his motel room. Calling it a standoff is generous; the man got bullied by a bird. 

You try not to laugh and end up unsuccessful, with Spencer insisting that you were taking sides and he was well and truly in danger, which only makes it funnier. His voice pitches up even as he tries to keep his volume low, and you argue that his energy is just so attractive that even the local wildlife are drawn to him. 

“Don’t start,” he warns, overwhelming fondness in his voice. 

You make Spencer tell you something boring to calm yourself down from the image you’ve conjured of him being chased by a roadrunner, which, in your exhausted state, is even funnier than it should be. He claims to regret confiding in you with this, but he knows he’d do it again just to hear you laugh. 

Instead of telling you something boring, he recites some of the poems he’s memorized over the years. It works the way you’d intended, and you regret it when you have to stop him to tell him you’re falling asleep. He’s just a little smug about it. 

“So, you’ll be home in four hours?” you ask, the start of your goodbyes. 

“More like three now.”

“We made time go faster.” 

“We did.” 

“Will you try to get some sleep?”

“Fine. Only because you asked.”

You hum, victorious. “Goodnight. I love you.” 

“And I love you.” 

Hours later, just as the sun is beginning to change the hue of the sky from deep navy to a hazy cerulean glow, you feel your mattress shift underneath you. You’re barely awake, but still you register the scent of Spencer’s shower gel, fresh and sort of woodsy. 

Half asleep, you shift to accommodate him, and he slips an arm around you as you lay your head on his chest. You wrap an arm around his torso and throw your leg over his hips, as close as you can possibly get without literally being on top of him. 

You sigh, deep and relieved, and Spencer’s heart stutters. 

“I missed this,” he chuckles, resting his cheek against the top of your head and wrapping his arms tighter around you. You just hum in response, the last of your energy before you’re pulled back under. Within minutes, Spencer is asleep too, and the two of you sleep through sunrise and into the afternoon. 

[violetrainbow412-blog]

Birthday wishes [S. R.]

Spencer Reid x fem!reader

Word count: 6.4k

Summary: everyone seems to forget Spencer's 30th birthday, but he only cares that you remember it.

second part here!

contents: childhood best friends, idiots who-don't-know-they're-in-love, surprise parties, pure fluff honestly

If you like my work leave a comment or reblog, that would make me very happy!

The first thing Spencer did when he got home was get rid of his converse and even though it had been a relatively calm day he was exhausted, so he went straight to the bedroom to throw himself on the bed. He lay back for a while, just enjoying the calm, and then he fumbled for the cell phone in his briefcase. He hit the call button on the contact he'd wanted to talk to all day and then he waited patiently.

“L/N family residence, who do you want me to contact you with?”

"Hello, is Miss Y/N by any chance?"

"Who's looking for her?" you continued and a smile escaped from his lips. It was usual for you to respond in a silly way when he called you, so he was used to it by now.

"Her best friend, Dr. Spencer Reid"

“Spencer Reid? Spencer Reid, I don't think that sounds familiar…” you teased, hearing him snort from the other end of the line “Ah! Wait, I remember you."

“After knowing each other for like 20 years, I hope so” he laughed, and then you too.

Sure enough, the man and you were friends from a very early age. You were his neighbor when he lived in Las Vegas and your parents had always been quite nice to the family, knowing the delicate situation they faced, so it wasn’t difficult for you to become friends. You were the first friend he ever had, a real one, so there was a special fondness between you, even when he had gone off to college at such a young age and distance had subsequently separated the two of you.

You always called each other and every time he visited his mother it was a law that you also received a visit, even if the time was only enough for you to greet each other with a hug. You also traveled to DC a few times because of your work and you even had your own key to his apartment, so if he was busy with a case, you could stay there instead of paying for a hotel. Your relationship was like that of a brother and sister, although as this familiarity grew, it was slightly intervened by loving feelings that you didn’t want to face yet but were definitely there.

You knew a lot about his life from those long-distance calls that happened at least once a week, and right now he was excited about something in particular. He was exactly one week away from his thirty-year birthday, and he hoped that, like every year, you would fly from Las Vegas to see him. It was a tradition, whether it was thunder or lightning, you two hadn't missed a single birthday from the other since he had to move out of state. So Spencer was hoping that this call was for you guys to plan what you were going to do; regularly your birthdays were in restaurants or nice places and his were at home, with food delivery and classic movies, or when you felt very adventurous you could go to a museum or just walk through the streets.

"How are you, Reid? How is everything?"

"Not so good, but not so bad either" he laughed "And you?"

"Everything has been terrible, it's like a curse is on my head, I swear" you complained. Spencer got up from his comfortable position to sit on the bed and although he knew that most of the time you said things like that you were just exaggerating, this time he had a bad feeling.

"Why?”

You started to tell him about the financial problems you were going through and he, with his mind still focused on your visit, thought about offering to pay for your flight to DC, but his spirits fell completely when you told him that you were being put under too much pressure at work.

“We're going to have a meeting next Friday with HR to discuss responsibilities and so on, but honestly I don't think things will get better. Right now I'm working from home because there are pending issues that have to be resolved as soon as possible and I barely have time to think during the day, you seriously can't imagine how busy I've been.”

When you finished the story, he remained silent, feeling his chest squeezed by the direction that things were now taking. With that scenario, your visit was too complicated and he was debating internally about whether he should tell you something about it or not. As he had thought before, the money to have you with him wasn’t a problem, but dealing with the issue of your shortened times was totally different. He didn't want to make you feel guilty for not being able to go, let alone disrupt activities that he knew were important to you, like that meeting you just mentioned. So what should he do? He wanted you to be there, but he wasn't going to make you.

“Crash? You still there?" you asked. Only you and his mother called him that, since his nickname had arisen when he was just a child due to his clumsiness, a trait that, in your opinion, he still retained. It wasn't offensive coming from you, even he was glad to know that this was something that belonged to the two women he loved the most.

"Yes, I'm here. I just was thinking"

"You always do, I don't think there's a single second when that mind of yours rests," you said amused "Anyway, what's new?"

Spencer hoped that you would at least apologize to him for your future absence or ask him what he intended to do today. But you seemed not even aware of it.

“Nothing, really. Today we're done with a case and if I'm lucky I'll be able to rest this weekend” he murmured. Sometimes he would tell you things about the cases, omitting bloody and dangerous details, so he leaned back and started recounting all the events into the speaker of his phone.

You two continued to talk for almost an hour, but the topic of the birthday didn't come up once and Spencer didn't try to bring it up. After all, there were still a few days to go and in the worst case, you could at least call him that day to congratulate him, right?

But as the days went by, the anxiety ate him more and he even called you a few days after that, but he only received a response from your mailbox and after a few minutes a short text message where you explained that you were a little busy with work, but that you would call him as soon as you could. The fact that during those days he found out that the entire team already had something to do on Friday didn’t help his mood too much.

Hotch and JJ discussed a sleepover for Henry and Jack after work, he overheard Garcia and Morgan agreeing to visit a new bar for the night, Rossi said he was going to visit one of his ex-wives and when he thought he could still invite Emily to hang out, she went over to talk to him about the therapist appointment that she clearly didn't want to go to, but had to. There was no remedy, everyone had plans for his birthday and he didn’t want to interfere with them. Resignation was the only thing the doctor had left during the remaining days, and when he least expected it, the entire week had already passed.

He used to wake up to your off-key version of the birthday song and a cupcake with a candle stuck in it, then you'd make breakfast and you'd eat it together; so not having any of that when he got out of bed, he felt his heart break a little. This year he thought he would get your call first thing in the morning, but when he checked his phone he didn't even find a message announcing that there was a case. He didn't want to go to the office to do paperwork on his birthday, but the thought of at least getting a hug from his coworkers cheered him up slightly.

He put on his favorite shirt, a new pair of pants, and the converse that you had given him and he only wore on special occasions, before leaving the apartment. For some reason Spencer enjoyed taking the subway, perhaps more than anyone he knew, and this time he stopped at a coffee shop that was just before arriving to buy something to drink, since he didn't feel like eating anything.

He undertook the entire trip lost in his thoughts and when he least expected it, he was already at the headquarters. He checked his phone, again, but he still didn't get any notifications or missed calls. Many times you had insisted that he get a more modern model and he had refused, but now he was wondering if the advances in technology would have allowed him to communicate with you through a video call. It would be embarrassing to ask Garcia for a favor, so he concluded that he would just wait, after all if he hadn't communicated it must have been for something important.

Upon entering, he greeted everyone with a huge smile and he felt somewhat disconcerted when the others greeted him normally, without hugs or cake on the table. He sat down at his desk to start going through the documents he already had and the others continued on their own business. It was common for Emily or Morgan to come up to him for a chat, but on this particular day it was as if they were avoiding him. Even Penelope, who he swore would congratulate him, seemed to have completely forgotten when he came to her place with the excuse of needing a piece of information from the previous case. When Hotch called him to his office, the man's eyes lit up, believing that his boss had remembered the celebration of the date.

"Can you do me a favor?" he had asked, without taking his eyes off whatever he was writing "Donovan needs to sort some files and honestly he has no idea how to do it and I'm too busy to explain, could you do it?"

Donovan was in charge of the physical file inside the building and it was not usual for him to request this kind of support, but Reid still said yes, and the rest of the day passed with him locked in a cellar full of filing cabinets. He had made sure to take his phone with him and every time he turned it on to check it and he realized that there was no sign of you his disappointment increased. He came to wonder if his mind hadn't been playing tricks on him and, for some incredible reason, he had gotten the day wrong and it wasn't really October 12; but when he saw the calendar, he verified that this wasn’t possible.

“Are you out of punishment yet?” Emily taunted, when after many hours she saw him again by the bullpen. At another time Spencer would have laughed, but right now his mood wasn't quite right for it and he just looked at her, more hostile than he intended. “Hotch left you some documents on your desk, he asked if you could review them before you go. It's urgent,” she informed him.

It was obvious that this would take time and he felt like crying at the thought of having to stay longer than the regular time. It was almost an hour after everyone else had gone home that he finished, feeling somewhat annoyed to find out that even Aaron had already left.

He doubted whether to go home or go to dinner somewhere, because he knew that if he returned to the apartment he would sink into sadness. His birthdays didn't mean anything special on their own, what he liked was to feel loved, to enjoy the company, but above all to see you.

While he was leaving the building, and as if you were reading his mind, a call vibrated on his cell phone. Seeing that it was you, Spencer didn't take more than two seconds to answer, thinking that maybe after the whole day he could improve.

"You won't believe what happened to me!" you said, without even greeting him. It wasn't the kind of sentence he was expecting, but he still decided to listen.

"What happened?"

“There is a boy, at my work, his name is Brandon. Well, Brandon and I have talked a few times now and he seems like a nice person, plus he's pretty handsome and he finally asked me out on a date with him, can you believe it?" you murmured excitedly, and a lump formed in Spencer's throat "We're going out today, the meeting was canceled and we decided to take advantage of the time, but I can't decide whether to wear the red dress or the black and gold outfit that my mom gave me and I need the help of an expert. You have seen both, which one do you think suits me better?

Spencer was quiet for a moment, processing the situation she was going through, and it wasn't until you said his name that he reacted.

"I like your red dress," he murmured, with a sad smile that you clearly couldn't see. He couldn't believe you were going out with a man you'd never mentioned and it affected him more than he expected you to be asking for advice because a pang of jealousy shot through his chest.

You were telling him that you were going to have a date on his birthday.

“I thought the same! I guess that will be the best option."

"I guess…"

"Where are you now? At home?" you kindly asked. Your tone almost made him angry.

“I just got off work. I'm on my way to take the subway"

"Oh, excellent. Today there were no cases?"

"Not fortunately. I'm glad to know that the criminals at least respected my birthday."

With that said, there was a deathly silence between you, to the point where he wondered if you were still on the other end of the line or if you understood what he was implying.

“Spencer, my God, I…”

"It's okay if you forgot," he said, trying to play the matter down, but the tears that were beginning to accumulate in his eyes indicated otherwise. The guilty tone with which you had spoken was more than enough to know that, probably, if he hadn’t mentioned it, you wouldn’t have done it either "Nobody remembered it"

"I'm so sorry" you practically sobbed "Between all the work and stuff I... I don't even know why I forgot, forgive me”

"It’s okay" he replied. But it wasn't okay. 

“Can I do something to fix it? Whatever, you just… ask me what you want and I'll do it. I swear," you mumbled, sounding desperate.

He tried to convince you that there was no problem with it and you continued to pour out apologies, which Spencer knew were worthless now but he wasn't selfish enough to ignore them. He wanted to scream, cry, or do anything to get that weight off his chest and even though he loved the sound of your voice right now it was the last thing he needed.

“Anyway, I'm about to enter the subway and uh, I have almost no signal there. I'll call you later, okay?" the question didn’t wait for an answer, because he immediately added: "Good luck on your date, bye"

If he had considered going out to celebrate, he knew that now what he urgently needed was to go home or he would break down in tears in the middle of the street. The ride on the subway lasted longer than he would have liked, as he longed to go to sleep and find out if it would allow him to forget a bit about the shitty day he had just had. When he was finally in front of the door with the number 23 in gold letters, he struggled enormously to put the key into the lock, because the tears in his eyes were already clouding his vision, and he believed that the heaviness on his shoulders wouldn’t allow him to advance.

The key turned one turn, then another, and then Spencer was allowed inside the house.

One week before…

The team was meeting in the conference room at the request of Penelope, who had asked everyone to stay after the scheduled time, waiting to receive the news of what they thought would surely be a new case.

"And Reid?" Morgan asked, noticing the empty chair next to him, because they had seen him leave and that was reason enough to have questions about his absence.

"I'm glad you asked because this meeting is related to him," Garcia replied. With the push of a button, a face appeared on the main screen and almost everyone present was surprised to see who it was "She is Y/N Y/L/N, do you remember her?"

"You were at Prentiss's funeral, right?"

"That's right" you replied with a smile, looking directly at the aforementioned "I still have a little trouble understanding, uh... that whole thing, to be honest" you joked.

"Y/N asked us for this space to discuss something related to Spencer's birthday, which will be next Friday" explained Hotch, who was the other member who was already aware of the matter "The microphone is all yours"

"Okay, so where do I start? It's great to see all of you and I hope you're doing well. Every year I visit Spencer on his birthday and we spend the day together, but since this year is his 30th birthday I wanted to do something special and I want to know if you would be willing to help me”

"Tell us your plan, precious"

“I don't intend to take up a lot of your time, it's simple. I will call him today to insinuate that this year I can’t go and all I want you to do is pretend that day that you don’t remember that it’s his birthday”

"Wait, why do you want us to ignore it?" JJ muttered with a frown.

"I want to throw him a surprise party in his apartment" you explained with a smile and then the request you were making to them didn't sound so farfetched "You can tell him you have plans that day and if he mentions something you just say you can't go. I bought my flight for that day and I will be in the city starting in the morning, so I can prepare everything”

"And how will we do if he invites us somewhere?"

Morgan suggested using a decoy for him and pretending they were taking him somewhere else, but you balked at the idea.

“I have all my hopes that he doesn’t mention anything. If so, we'll manage somehow. And I know that asking for that is difficult because we are all his friends, but if necessary, avoid him completely that day. We need him to know under no circumstances that we have a surprise for him."

“He is very smart and he will figure it out. If we make him believe that we forgot he will concentrate on that” you argued. Although the others didn't want to admit it, they knew that you had a point there "I just hope you don't have some unforeseen case or something like that, because I would hate for that lie to be for nothing"

You discussed some more until you concluded that your plan was the most viable. The girls would help you with ideas for decorations and David even offered to buy all the drinks. Although the others weren’t surprised by his generosity, you were slightly upset, but this didn’t prevent you from accepting the offer and thanking him in advance.

“It really means a lot to me that you guys help me, thanks” you murmured happily, once everything was settled, and then your phone started ringing in the background “It's Spencer! I have to answer him. If something happens, you guys will tell me, right?"

"Take it for granted" smiled Garcia, who was the one who had lived with you the most, but everyone supported her from the bottom.

"Fine, thanks everyone, thanks Agent Hotch, I'll see you later!" you said goodbye, hanging up the video call and simultaneously answering the phone.

Everyone got up from the conference room and Rossi was the first to speak, a smile on his face.

"Call me crazy..." he started to say "but something tells me that girl and Spencer are going to end up together"

"The pretty boy loves her, but he still doesn't notice it," Morgan laughed, as they all walked out. "Whenever we go to Vegas, his eyes shine when he sees her."

“And she's setting this up for him! It's so sweet" Penelope sighed, who had already taken Derek's arm "But the part about being mean to Spencer doesn't convince me much… he's going to be so sad"

"Look at it this way, babygirl: if he's sad he'll be happier than usual with the surprise."

"Nobody's going to screw it up," Emily threatened them, pointing her index finger at them, and the rest of the team promised they wouldn't.

Meanwhile, your first part of the plan was in the works, with the late-night call he had made to you. You had to admit that lying to your best friend was something you hated, but with any luck it would all be worth it when you could hug him and give him that gift that you had carefully kept on one of the shelves, that you hoped could be enough for such an important event like the first thirty years of life.

What happened during the week is history, which was consolidated at the moment he turned the handle without even imagining what awaited him.

When Spencer walked through the door the first thing he did was turn on the light and he felt like he was going to have a heart attack when he heard the screams coming from inside. There were purple balloons scattered all over the floor, a congratulations banner, a table full of presents, and everyone was there.

The shock was such that he couldn't even manage to say a word and some of the tears that he had been holding back were finally able to come out, but this time for different reasons.

They hadn’t forgotten.

"How…? What are you doing here?"

“We came to celebrate your birthday, genius,” Morgan laughed, as he reached over to hug his friend and ruffled his hair brotherly.

A wave of hugs preceded that and even he received a couple of kisses on each cheek from Rossi, which finally made him laugh. He seemed like a child, completely fascinated with everything around him and still processing the situation.

In the midst of it all, he couldn't help wondering how his friends had been able to enter the apartment, since none of them had a copy of the key and the landlady was too suspicious to have let them in just like that, but he felt happy for the direction the day had taken.

“First of all, we have another surprise for you,” said JJ, obviously excited. The rest shared complicit glances and García began to record with his cell phone, which made him a little nervous "But you have to close your eyes."

Spencer looked at everyone else as if waiting for a confirmation of that, and seeing a couple of nods he did what his friend was asking. Just to make sure Jennifer covered his eyelids with her hands and in this way she turned him around, while he wondered what this surprise could be about.

"Are you ready?" she asked and the man answered yes with a hum. There was silence for a second, as if they were checking something, and then she withdrew her hand. "Open them."

Many possibilities went through the man's mind for whatever he would see at that moment, but when he did, he felt his heart stop for a moment. There you were, looking at him with a sweet smile and wearing that red dress. 

The rest of those present were waiting for who would make the first move, because the two of you had froze looking at each other, and García was only pointing the camera carefully as you had requested.

"Surprise?" you said shyly, noticing that Spencer hadn't said anything.

You were afraid that after the call you had he was upset with you in some way, but a second after he recovered from the shock he was already on top of you, holding you by the waist to spin you through the air while you laughed heartily.

"You came," he said, his voice cracking, but completely brimming with happiness.

"Of course I would, Spencer, do you think I'd miss your birthday?"

"But you... your work"

"All a vile lie"

"And that boy?"

“There was never such a thing,” you laughed, freeing yourself from the weight of guilt “You're my only boy,” you added affectionately, palms planted squarely on your friend's cheeks. He still had you in his arms and was grinning from ear to ear at your answers "I'm so sorry I told you all that, I just didn't want you to suspect anything, can you forgive me?"

"No!" he practically squealed and you widened your eyes in amazement “Today was the most terrible day because I thought you didn't care about me anymore, you made me suffer! All of you!" your friend complained, looking away from you briefly to look at those present.

"In our defense, she asked us to," Emily laughed, holding up both hands in surrender.

"You're so mean," he murmured, turning his attention back to you. "But I love you so much.”

A group sigh filled the room as he engulfed you in a hug and from your position you could see the teasing or tender smiles they all had. It wasn't very common to see the youngest of the team in that position, much less saying those things, plus we had to add the collective opinion that you were madly in love.

"Seriously, forgive me"

"It’s okay…" he whispered close to your ear "You're here, that's what matters"

His body felt so soft and safe that you didn't want to stop hugging him, but you knew that if you took too long it would create an uncomfortable environment for the rest, so you had no choice but to gently pull him away from you. The woman asked your friend, just to annoy him, if he liked his surprise and although he didn't say anything, the giant smile and flushed cheeks were enough of an answer.

"Come, you won't escape my melodious voice" you murmured after a few seconds, when the commotion calmed down a bit.

Taking him by the hand, you led him to the table where you had the chocolate cake with a couple of candles that formed the number 30. Everyone sang the song while the wick burned down and the boy looked anywhere, with that certain shyness characteristic of him. When he blew out the candle to make his wish, you all applauded and that started the celebration.

There were some appetizers on the table and Rossi had stocked all the drinks quite well, as he had promised. As the minutes passed you hovered here and there to check that things were in order, arranging everything as if it were your own apartment, and Spencer could only smile at how well you seemed to get along with everyone. The last time you'd seen the team was, sure enough, during Emily's funeral, but that didn't mean there wasn't some history between you.

He still remembered the feeling of shame when in the early years he had asked Gideon for permission to summon someone to the hotel during a case in Las Vegas. It wasn't that he was ashamed of you, but that he was ashamed of having to reveal something so important in his life to his FBI colleagues. The agent didn't object at all, but that didn't spare the man from being grilled by Derek and Elle about which mysterious lady their younger coworker was talking to. Over the years, people left the unit, and others joined, but the constant was always you. Even now, if a replacement happened, Spencer knew that the rest of the team would take it upon themselves to introduce you to said person. 

At some point he felt a tremendous nostalgia for that time and in a chain of thoughts he came to ask himself if working where he did was the right thing to do. Turning thirty was cause for celebration, but for him it was also tantamount to thinking how well he had lived up to the expectations of what he expected to have achieved at this age: How much progress should he have made in the world by now? Was it any use having that brilliant mind that everyone raved about if he was working in a government office? And what about his personal life? He wanted to get married at some point and wondered if he should be looking for love instead of criminals. Even while he was through all this, he wished he could focus on how happy his friends had made him instead of worrying about other things. 

"Up to here I can see the gears of your brain" laughed someone next to him. It was Emily "What's wrong?"

"Nothing" he murmured, shaking his head softly "I was thinking about some things, it's just that"

"You should drink some more, that wine that Dave brought tastes delicious" she smiled, inviting him to come closer to the others to chat.

It was a bit ironic, but completely understandable, that even at his own birthday party he would remain a bit oblivious to the situation. Following Emily's advice, he poured himself another drink and joined the other attendees to enjoy the moment. For hours you laughed and chatted, until the drinks were running out and your drunkenness rising.

The parents of the group were the first to leave and the last was a drunk Penelope who threatened to stay there to sleep, but Derek took it upon himself to guide her to his car to take her home. It was late at night when only you and Spencer were left, amidst all the decorations in the room.

"Peace and tranquility"

"It was too much?" you laughed, knowing that your friend could become overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle.

"No, no. Just kidding"

“And was it okay for you? You had fun?" you asked, referring to the party, as the two of you sat down on the leather couch. The dress you were wearing rose to the top of your thighs and his attention strayed there for a second, so he looked up guiltily; He didn't help the blush on his cheeks that there was your cleavage. 

"Everything was wonderful"

"Are you seriously not mad at me?" you insisted

"No, honey, I'm not," he laughed. You tried to ignore the fact that he had said that to you, since it wasn't something he was used to, and just smiled sheepishly, "I mean, at first I was a little, but now that I understand why you did it, I'm not anymore."

“You are already thirty… you are so old!”

"You are older than me!" he squealed, completely offended, and you responded with a laugh. Although that was true, you looked more jovial than the man, something that a variety of people had taken it upon themselves to verify.

"Now that I remember, do you want to see your gift?"

"Isn't this supposed to be my gift?" The confusion was evident in his voice and you refrained from answering, as you bolted into the room. You came back from there with a box in your hands, which you later placed on your lap with evident emotion.

“I wrapped it myself” you confessed, rather proud of yourself. You had found a piece of paper to cover with drawings of equations and small microscopes that you thought captured the essence of your friend and, of course, now that he had seen it, he had liked it a lot.

The man's fingers drummed the surface under your expectant gaze, and then he winced slightly.

"What's up?"

"I don't know, I think maybe I should open it later…"

"Spencer Reid!" you yelled. It was obvious that he was only joking with you and you knew that by the laugh that escaped his lips. 

Your friend opened the box almost ceremonially and then removed the tissue paper that covered the contents: above all there were two hardcover books, one about the world of fungi and the other about poetry, next to it an hourglass, then three boxes with jigsaw puzzles, a pocket chess game, packets of Reid's favorite sweets, and last but not least, a picture of the two of you in a pretty chocolate-colored frame and a little paper envelope to go with it. One by one he was taking out the gifts and his smile only grew with each object, while he felt his heart grow with love.

"I remember this day" he murmured, referring to the photograph you had chosen. The sky was blue behind you and you were kissing Spencer's cheek, who was smiling at how spontaneous it had been “We were in a park after going to an art exhibition."

“And we bought the most delicious ice cream in the world”

"I differ, I've had better," he murmured, shrugging. The truth is that you thought that the ice cream had been delicious because of the whole panorama of that day, not so much because of the taste itself.

Spencer knew that photo would have to go on his desk in the bullpen, although the taunts he was sure the others would throw at him. Perhaps having you there would serve as a reminder that there was good in the world, despite everything he could see on the job every day. 

“Oh, and I read somewhere that hourglasses help people with anxiety because it's relaxing to watch the sand fall so they can focus on it. I thought you might like it, I bought it at an antique store."

"It's very nice" he agreed, turning the object over and checking that it actually worked "I'll open the note, okay?"

Spencer always preferred that you read his letters in private because if he saw your face and knew you were reading those words he would just cringe, but you didn't seem to share that trait so you agreed to his request. As with the box, he carefully opened the envelope and then pulled out a handwritten note.

I hope you like these little gifts that try to express a huge love.

Never doubt that you are making a change in the world and that you are surrounded by people who love you, including your old neighbor who now ironically lives too far from you. 

Happy 30th birthday to my favorite person in the entire world. I am confident that many more years will come for both of us.

Always yours, Y/N.

"Don't cry, Reid" you asked gently, feeling your own tears at the edge of your eyes. Spencer smiled and leaned in your direction to wrap you in a hug so hopefully you wouldn't notice if he got emotional.

"Thank you" was the only thing he managed to say. 

He wanted to thank you not only for that day but for years of friendship, years of feeling like he wasn't so alone in the world if he had you by his side and even thank you for treating him like a normal kid when no one else did. And as always, you perfectly understood what he was referring to.

You stayed like that for a few minutes; Spencer tucked into the crook of your neck and cooing at the throbbing on your pulse line, and you basking in the warmth of the contact.

“Did you like the puzzles?” 

"Yeah! They are great” he replied, as he moved away from you so that he could observe you “Do you want us to put one together?”

“Sure” you smiled “Just let me put on my pajamas and I'll be right back, okay?”

"Good. You look very beautiful in that dress, by the way. I don't know if I forgot to tell you” he flattered you, making you smile sincerely. 

"You chose it, remember?"

Before getting up you kindly squeezed his cheek and after changing your clothes you returned to where you were. He had chosen the puzzle with the design of a Monet painting and spread it out on the floor, where the two of you settled comfortably.

Your friend took a bunch of pieces and you took another and you guys worked in silence until little by little things started to come together. He was very good at the task and very soon he already had a considerable part assembled; although you were going a little slower you followed a constant rhythm. 

"Hey, Spencer"

"Yeah?" he asked, too intent on finding a place for the piece in his fingers to watch you.

“What was your birthday wish? When blowing out the candles”

"Oh, I didn't wish for anything"

"Why?" you asked confused.

Spencer looked up from the puzzle and smiled at you.

"Because my birthday wish was already right here"

It seemed obvious to him, but it took you a second to understand exactly what he meant and when you finally did, your eyes gave him the sweetest look of all.

You and your friend stayed up all night until the play was over and after that you both stumbled to bed, where you fell fast asleep in each other's arms.

At some point Spencer half-opened his eyes, prisoner of a bad dream, and when he was aware of the situation he felt the peace he needed. After that it didn't take him long to get back to sleep, with a smile on his face and his whole world held in his arms.

taglist: @navs-bhat @reidwritings @tricia-shifting14 @spencerslove

[reiderwriter]

You'd Be Like Heaven To Touch♣️

Pairing: Spencer Reid X Female Reader

Word count: 2.2k

Summary: After a whirlwind weekend, you're finally ready to go home and deal with the mess you created in Vegas. But you just cannot get your new Husband out of your head.

Warnings: Oral sex (F receiving), fingering, vaginal sex, no mention of birth control, and you're going to hate me by the end of this sex scene bye

A/N: They're officially out of Vegas! I'm so excited to share the next few parts with you guys, and we finally got our first taste of smut!! Also, the Reid in the gif is the exact one I'm picturing in this scene so yeah 🤡 smirk and all 😏

Here's the series masterlist, and my general masterlist!~

Prev. Chapter // Next Chapter

The race back to the hotel was easy compared to the ensuing rush to pack up an entire hotel room's worth of mess in the time between their arrival and their check-out time. Sure, they’d had to pack light as travelling FBI agents, but with the added mess you’d created in Spencer’s room, and the additional luggage of their marriage licence, the packing was needlessly more frantic than usual. 

When you finally did make it down to the lobby, you froze up a little, realising that you were the final one to exit your room. You watched as seven pairs of eyes shifted to you as soon as the elevator door opened, hauling your go-bag further up your arm from where it was slipping down. You thanked your past self for having the foresight to put some makeup into the bag, having used up a copious amount of your concealer to cover up any evidence of your night with Reid. You still kept a small distance from the others, just in case.

“Sorry, were you all waiting for me?” you smiled at them as you got closer, hoping that they’d not ask questions at what had taken you so long. Your eyes caught Reid’s and you could see that he was looking down at your neck. 

After an entire day morning and night in your company, you knew he’d seen the results of his handiwork. You wondered if the look that raked over you now was that of the dominant Reid from the night before, who you presumed marked you in such prominent places so people would know you were his, or that of the concerned team mate, who didn’t want to be caught and questioned by the others. You tried to shake both images from your head, not sure which would please you more. 

“It’s okay, you’re not late, the cars are being bought around now and the jet leaves in 30,” Hotch greeted you when you finally got close enough. 

“Late night, mama?” Morgan laughed at you as soon as he turned to you. “How did all that drinking last night go for you?” 

You were so wrapped up in Reid and what he may or may not be thinking that you had to pull yourself back to reality for a second to realise that Morgan had been talking to you. 

“What? Oh yeah, I guess. I don’t think I drank too much, but I did sleep like a baby, so who knows.” You laughed a little to punctuate the point, and then watched Morgan’s reaction closely. You were still looking for the two “agents” who had been witness to your marriage, after all. 

“Ooh, you didn’t sample the local goods last night then? I’ve heard that Downtown Las Vegas is the best place to meet single men, and you were just complaining that you hadn’t been out in a while,” Penelope said from beside the man. 

“No, no, the place Reid took me to was more library than bar, and as far from Downtown as you could get, so it was a nice and easy night for me.” 

“And if the local men are anything like our resident Las Vegan,” Emily jumped in, looking at Reid. “Then I’m sure they’re not really what Y/N is looking for.” She laughed and they all start making their way out of the lobby. 

You try to avoid meeting Reid’s eyes after that last comment, sure that you wouldn’t be able to stop the grimace of apology from coming to your lips. But you couldn’t help yourself, and you forced your eyes up into a small peak at his face, only to see his downturned eyes and the small smirk that was crossing his lips. 

You hung back for a second, needing to clue this out, and nudged him with your elbow. 

“What’s that look for?” you whisper at him in a harsh tone, hoping that no one was watching the two of you. 

“It’s nothing.” He says, but the smile stays on his lips. You give him another look, silently communicating that you’re not taking that first answer and he nods a little as he walks beside you. 

“If they could see the marks on your neck, they wouldn’t be thinking that I’m not what you’re looking for, right?” You could feel the heat in your cheeks, and you playfully whacked him in the arm a bit, before pushing through the doors of the hotel and feeling the sun on your cheeks once again. 

You watched him climb into the car you took earlier and stop yourself from following him. You were going to need some time to think about how you should take that last comment, and a half an hour drive outside of his presence would probably do you good. Climbing up into the other SUV, you take a deep breath, feeling all the restlessness of the night before creep up on you.

–X–

You don’t know where you are, but you know that you’re burning up under his touch. His lips are on your skin, working their way down from your neck to the valley between your breasts and all you can hear is the sound of your own lustful moans as his hands trail further still. 

You don’t know who it is on top of you, but you know that you’re dying for him to be there, to push his tongue into your mouth and make you submit to his will. His fingers wrap around the waistband of your panties and roughly pull them down, opening you up to him. You feel his lips ghost down further still, until he’s there between your legs. 

“Is this where you wanted me, baby? So desperate to have me, my little slut.” His words send another shiver down your spine as you roll your hips up into his face again. 

He lets out a small chuckle and gives you what you want, finally lowering his tongue again and letting it meet your desperate cunt. He sets his attention on your clit, and your eyes roll back in bliss, not caring who it is between your legs giving you this much pleasure, just desperate for them to keep going. 

“Don’t stop, please, don’t stop,” you beg, fisting a handful of your mystery man’s hair. It’s soft to the touch, a little curly at the ends and it feels familiar, but you’re unable to think about it for more than a second before he’s pushing a finger into you. 

“That’s it baby. Look at you, so fucking tight around my finger. You want me to push my cock into you, you’re going to have to relax for me baby, okay?” You still don’t know who it is, but you nod for him, knowing you want nothing except everything he’s telling you that you want. 

He’s thrusting his fingers into you at a relentless pace now, adding one digit every few thrusts, until he’s up to three. His face is still buried in your pussy, tongue still flicking against your clit, his other hand pushing you down by the hips as he forces you closer and closer to the edge. 

His hand drops down to your thigh, pushing your legs further apart, and it stays there feeling overly warm, almost burning you up from just that simple touch. 

“You’re so wet for me baby, going to take my cock now?” You whimper and nod your head as fervently as you can, begging him with your eyes to push into you. He finally pulls his head up to your own, and you’re finally face-to-face with your mystery man. 

“So wet for me, right baby? So wet for your husband?” Spencer questions you as he pushes into your wet, dripping hole, and you’re so surprised that all you can do in response is moan. 

With each thrust, he drops a moan into your ears, and you feel your climax building quickly. 

“Ah fuck yes, Y/N,” you claw at his back, desperate to pull him closer. 

“Spencer, don’t stop, fuck.” Your name begins dropping from his lips like a prayer as his thrusts get sloppier, wetter, deeper. 

“Y/N… Y/N……… Y/N….” 

–X– 

“Y/N, are you finally awake? We’ve been calling your name for a minute now.” Your eyes snap open and you come face to face with Emily and JJ from the seats opposite you on the jet. 

“We thought you might be having a nightmare. Want to talk about it?” JJ asks, her voice in a hushed tone as a look of sympathy crosses over her face. 

Whatever that was, it certainly was not a nightmare. But the scenario you were in now certainly was. 

“What? Oh, yeah. I don’t know, maybe it was a nightmare.” You desperately hope you sound convincing enough for them to drop the subject. The last time you’d mentioned a lack of sleep, half of the team had approached you with different home remedies and tips for getting your full 8 hours. The last thing you needed right now was the constant reminder that you’d just had a sex dream about Spencer Reid on the jet whilst surrounded by all your close friends and colleagues. 

Including the man himself, you realised, as you stretched your neck out from its awkward sleep position, and caught the sight of him there next to you. Your car had reached the jet first earlier that day, and it had taken all of two minutes after boarding before you’d been claimed by sleep, so you hadn’t realised he’d positioned himself next to you. 

A quick glance down had told you he’d done more than that. Wrapped around your legs, and so big that it stretched over his too, was a large blanket, the one that he usually used on your longer trips home. He was asleep in the seat next to you, you noticed after an embarrassing amount of time, head resting in one of his hands, lips slightly open, looking the image of tranquillity. 

His other hand was beneath the blanket, somewhere you couldn’t see, but as you shifted slightly in your chair trying to get comfortable again, you realised it was definitely somewhere you could feel. His hand had somehow fallen into your lap, and he had a firm but sleepy grip on your left thigh, the one closest to him. Now that you had moved, so did his hand, rubbing gentle strokes into your skin every few minutes. Slow enough that you were sure he was still asleep, but still enough to have am effect.

His hand was hot against your leg, and his touch burned. You remembered the sensation from your dream and immediately did your best to temper your facial expressions, not wanting to gather any more concern from the two women opposite you at the table than you already had. 

“Y/N? If you want to talk about it, we’re always here you know? This job can be overwhelming at the best of times, and we just worked a hard case. No one would blame you for needing to take some time for yourself.” Emily looked at you in concern now, and it was taking all of your will to keep your eyes on her, and nod at the appropriate time, your brain short-circuiting now that you realised Reid was so close. 

Where did this sudden infatuation with him come from? You’d always appreciated that he was a good looking guy, but you’d never thought about him so thoroughly before, and certainly not enough to lose yourself on the jet to inappropriate thoughts. 

It was the insanity of the weekend, you told yourself, it had to be. You’d learnt more about him and accidentally, possibly, maybe slept together, and now your body was just getting it out of your system. Either that or you’d just learnt too much about his preferences and your brain was just trying to come to terms with each revelation. 

You settled back into comfortable conversation with Emily and JJ, trying your best to convince yourself that your dream had meant nothing, blocking out any noise in your head that was suggesting otherwise. 

Especially the little thought at the back of your brain that was reminding you that you hadn’t removed his hand from your thigh, and that you really didn’t want to. 

🏷️@w-windyy @multifandom-on-the-side @reidandhotchsgirl @babybluecakes @bluecandycake @hugyourlungs @prentissesredtanktop @reidscaffeine @bethanyhaas01 @average-sunflower @academiareid @sailortongue @lover-of-books-and-tea @star0055 @daddy-dotcom @zaapsite @high-functioning-cosplayer @anniewhalelover @abbyshmaby @isabel-ffl-xoxo @sujan39 @frxcless @bluestuesday @busy-buzzing @breadbrobin @maxinehufflepuffprincess @l0v3cam @booksandwonderlands @myescapefromthislife @kat453 @ferrjulie @scoobydoopoo @kapeyama @aelinismyqueen @littlesingingbean @xohoneybun @anchovy89freya @jamiemuscatosslut @sharkcat1928 @dysphoricsanity @alyssaxstan @ghostheartbeat @beguiling3lavender @Casss2111 @zada-quinn @zatannas-wand @rebloggiest-reblogger @wishyoudaskme @imawhoreforu @kspencer34 @academiacoffeelover

@softservepunk @andiebeaword @r-3dlips @cow-parsley @wakaladjarin @itsyagrillkat @ratbastardchild @crazyforreid @mcira @danika1994 @stargurl99 @whovianwholikesgirls @myinnerwonderlandmind @axionn @bastard-chicken-3 @its-not-too-late-for-coffee @doriantomybasil @shqwqrma @shits8gigs @rosiehale23 @sadroses97 @destielshipper88

[monzabee]

girl crush – dr3

masterlist || part 2 ||

Summary: The one where both you and Daniel meet your celebrity crushes in the course of a weekend, and decide to give it a go. 

Pairing: daniel ricciardo x actress!reader

Word Count: 4522

Warnings: fluff, shy daniel, shy reader, max being a menace (we love you max), awkwardness, 2023 australian gp, oscars (i love you Jamie Lee Curtis, you rock), slight age gap? (the reader is around the same age as Max)

Request: this is a long one besties, but you can read the request here! + “Hello! Can I please request nepo!reader who's an actress and maybe has an oscar or something? Maybe with Lewis or Daniel”

Author’s Note: hi, hey, hello!! this title changed so many times i lost track, but at the end, i went with the song – mainly because harry styles. i don’t know what’s wrong with me but this was very hard to write because i had BIG plans for it, so i’m sorry it took a while for me to finish it. also, i listened to a lot of la la land for some reason, so here you go. i hope i did it justice, and this was definitely very fun to write and i had a great time writing it, so thank you, to the anons, for the request, i hope you guys enjoy! good morning, noon or night wherever you are, xoxobee

Please also note that all of my works are protected under copyright, and not available for reposting on other platforms. 

Growing up with parents who were obsessed with Formula One had finally taken its toll on you, you decide as you walk towards the Red Bull Hospitality. Your father’s sudden retirement from acting, combined with your mother’s stubborn personality is the reason why you suddenly find yourself at the 2023 Australian Grand Prix. You don’t really know why they didn’t wait for the one in Miami, or perhaps Las Vegas, since their primary residence is in the US, but you had no choice but to join them when they pulled out the ‘We’re getting old’ card. So there you are, after 15 hours of flying over the Pacific Ocean, in Melbourne and ready to enjoy the racing weekend. Or so you think – because you spend the entirety of Friday catching up on lost sleep while cursing every single time your parents decide to call you to let you know how much of a great time they’re having. 

In the end, you get ready Saturday morning, to get breakfast with your parents before leaving for Albert Park. Just as you’re about to leave your room, your eyes fall on a familiar hat, adorned with a certain number, and you put it on your head without giving it a second thought. Your parents don’t comment on your choice of merchandise even if they find it odd, which is good, you think, because you don’t particularly want to hear your father tease you over your “teenage crush”.  The whole paddock is buzzing by the time you get there, and you immediately feel guilty because you missed the practice sessions the previous day. You quickly lose your parents to the crowd around you, too busy looking at the action around you, when you hear your name being called from somewhere. You look around trying to find the source of the voice, when you find a familiar face which makes you smile. 

“Oh my god, what are you doing here?” You ask, quickly pulling Samira for a hug, who in return points to the camera. 

“Weekend job, babe.” She laughs. “I’ve interviewed your father just a couple of minutes ago, actually.” 

“Oh no,” You laugh and shake your head. “Did he tell you about his petunias?” “He did, indeed.” Samira nods and hands you one of the microphones in her hand. “Are you up for a quick interview?” She asks you as she gives you an innocent smile. 

You nod while letting out a chuckle. “Well, someone has to save your viewers from my father’s garden talk, so why not?” 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Samira tells you, her words coming of a bit slurred because of the way she talks too fast. She then turns to the camera after making sure that your mic is working. “Welcome back to the second day of the Australian Grand Prix, I’m here with Y/N Y/LN, whose father we just spoke to; Y/N, is this a family day out, or what?” 

“This is definitely a family day out, Samira.” You laugh, nodding to strengthen your point. “Not a very usual one, we usually prefer to stay a bit more local for the weekend outings, but you never know where we’ll be next, I guess.” 

“By ‘local’, do you mean the Oscars, perhaps? I mean, can we talk about your win for a moment? How does it feel to be the receiver of the award for the Actress in a Supporting Role?” 

You take a deep breath as you feel your smile widen, as you can’t even try to hide your happiness. “It feels amazing, let me tell you. It was an amazing opportunity and I can’t thank enough to the lovely director and everyone who made the movie possible.” Samira nods with a satisfied look on her face as you answer. “Congratulations once again for your win. I have to ask, big Red Bull fan?” She asks you in a teasing voice.

“What?” You asked, confused. Only to realise the hat sitting on your head when she points to it with a silent chuckle. You let out a laugh while instinctively touching the hat on your head. “Oh god, you could say so, I guess; yeah.” 

“I mean, I have to comment on the obvious part here.” She points to the hat while shooting the camera a look. “Number 3? You do realise the changes in the grid, don’t you?” 

You laugh at her teasing voice, shrugging and smiling with an innocent look. “What can I say, I like to avoid the reality and live in my delusions.” After a few more teasing from Samira, you explain with a laugh, “No jokes, though, I honestly hope Daniel Ricciardo returns to Red Bull somehow because I don’t know how I’ll cope without him for another season.” 

“A big Danny Ric fan, then, I presume?” Samira asks, pointedly. 

“Oh yeah, been for a while now.”

After you’re done with your interview and bid adieu to Samira, who thanks you a dozen times more, you find your parents at the Red Bull hospitality, speaking with none other than Christian Horner himself, accompanied by Max. It’s a slightly awkward transition when you join their conversation, but it passes quickly. It doesn’t take long for your parents to be involved with their own conversation with the team principle, and for you and Max to speak amongst yourselves. Although you ask him every single question that comes to your mind about racing, whether it makes sense or not, and he answers each of them without discouraging you. 

He pulls a funny face when he realises your choice of merch, pointing to your hat with a mischievous smile on his face. “Interesting choice, I would have gone with Checo.” 

You roll your eyes and huff, taking your hat in the process. “You’re just jealous because it’s not your number, Max.” 

“You wanna try that again?” Max raises his eyebrows. 

“So what if I’m wearing his number?” You ask, arms crossed over your chest. “He’s a very good driver.”

“Who is not driving this seaso– Ow! Stop it!” Max exclaims as you hit his arm repeatedly in an attempt to stop him talking. “I hope you’re just as charming when you meet him.”

You pull a face while asking, “What do you mean ‘when I meet him’?”

He gives you an unamused look. “You’re either a very good actress, or you are very bad at checking your social media.” His eyes widen when you match his look, which tells him everything he needs to know. “You know he’s around, right? He’s shooting promo stuff, I think.” 

“What do you mean he’s around?” You shriek in an attempt to hide your hat, as if Daniel is actually around to see it. 

“Yeah, wait, let me call him.” He takes out his phone and quickly dials him before you have the opportunity to tell him not to do that, but he quickly shoves his phone back into his pocket when he spots someone familiar over your shoulder and waves them over. 

Your eyes widen as you hiss, “You’re the worst, you know that?” 

He winks at you a playfully in return, “Don’t forget to invite me to your wedding.” Then, he shakes the hand of the driver, who finally makes his way to both of you, and pulls him into what you can only describe as a ‘bro hug’. “Hello, man.” 

“Hello, mate.” Daniel greets him back. His eyes widen in recognition when he catches your eyes over Max’s shoulder, and he side-steps to shake your hand with excitement, which only makes you clutch the hat closer to your chest. “Hello, you’re Y/N Y/LN. Oh my god, I’m a big fan!” 

“M-me too!” You manage to get out, and then quickly add, “A big fan of you, not myself. That would be very egotistical of me.” You inhale a sharp breath as you ignore the look Max gives you, and close your eyes for a moment before opening them again. “Please ignore that, I think the jet lag is finally catching up with my brain.” 

“Sure, we’ll call it the jet lag.” Max mumbles, which earns him a hit with your elbow in his ribs. “Ow!” 

“I’m this close to switching teams and supporting Mercedes instead.” You lift your hand to show the minimal space you’ve left between your thumb and pointer-finger. 

“I think I should take over, here before you drive her away, Max.” He jokingly shakes his hand in a motion to make him go away, and then turns you with a warm smile as Max leaves the two of you to join some of the engineers nearby. “Now, should we get you a Red Bull?”

Talking to Daniel is very easy, you realise quickly. Once you (both) get over your shyness, the conversation just flows in a way you’re not used to. He, too, answers any questions you might have like Max did, but the look in his eyes are different when you show interest in something he’s particularly passionate about. He asks you about receiving your first Oscar, and you ask him about how his wine business is going – which ends up with him promising to send a few bottles over so that you can give it your stamp of approval; you both decide that your review is going be on the back of the bottles. 

“But doesn’t it get into your eyes when you’re spraying it?” You ask him, trying to comprehend how the champagne they spray doesn’t go everywhere. “And doesn’t it burn? It has alcohol, and… bubbles.”

“You might be onto something here.” He mumbles in thought, thinking whether the champagne burned his eyes or not. “Occupational hazard?” He asks in an uncertain voice, hoping it satisfies your question as an answer. 

“Oh, right.” You nod, taking another sip from the can he got you. “It’s crazy, you’ve won like what? 8 races? That’s crazy, you’re crazy.” The way you keep saying whatever comes to your mind makes Daniel smile as the energy you’re feeling taking over your body for the time being. “Wow, I’ve never felt like this, is this what energy drinks do to you?” 

“Probably why you shouldn’t drink too much.” He agrees.

“Sorry.” You smile apologetically, suddenly very aware of the fact that you are, in fact, rattling nonsense in front of your biggest celebrity crush. “You must think I’m crazy, and I shouldn’t be holding you back. I’m sure you have better things to do.”

Daniel is panicking inside when you start to get up, his mind scrambling up words to find a way to make you stay – he feels like a kid who’s asking his parents to let him play for a little longer. It’s not that he is not a social person, he is, but the conversation the two of you share is one of the most meaningful ones to him, even though you’re not actually talking about anything that deep. But he realises there is no pretences with you, no expectations, nothing to hide. He enjoys the way you speak what’s on your mind, whether it might be complimentary or the opposite, but he enjoys how you present your opinion and why you have it. He knows he’s extremely starstruck at that very moment, god knows he’s met enough famous people to know what it feels like, but it’s the kind of starstruck that makes him want to be not shy about it. He wants to keep talking to you for as long as you can tolerate him, because in his mind, he might be the one who is butchering the whole conversation up just by shutting up and succumbing to his shyness. He’s hyperaware of the fact that he has held himself back over the past hour, just because he was thinking about the fact that your hair is looking very shiny under the Australian sun and it is his number on your hat. It’s not something the two of you talked about, yet, but when he realises that it is his number on it, there is this inexplicable pride surging over him.

So, with his entire courage, he says, “Stay.” He clears his throat to buy himself some time to think of something else to say. “I mean, I don’t have anything else I need to do, and it’s very nice to talk to you. So, you know, if you want to, we could maybe, I don’t know, continue to talk?”

“Oh.” You let out a breath, eyes wide with excitement (and a little bit of apprehension), but despite all the nervousness you’re feeling, you find yourself back in your seat, and mumbling. “Of course, it’s very nice to speak with you too.” 

And so you find yourself immersed in another conversation with the Aussie seated across from you. He is open about the past year – which as a fan you’re dying to know what happened, but don’t want to question him because he is only human after all. But for some reason, it comes naturally to talk about his pseudo-retirement with you. He tells you about his plans for the year, and how he hopes to get back to a seat by the start of the next season. In return, you tell him about the time how you almost stopped acting, but the last project you gave a change brought you an Oscar. It’s a much deeper conversation than before, but somehow you find yourself talking without feeling nervous to do so – without any second thoughts. 

“I, uh, I like your hat.” He smiles nervously, pointing to the discarded hat on your lap. 

You laugh nervously as your fingers occupy themselves with the visor of the cap. “Thanks, it’s my favourite.” 

“Yeah?” The question that leaves his mouth is so soft that you think you would miss it if your eyes weren’t so focused on him. 

“Oh, yeah.” You assure him with a little shrug. “Much better than orange, let me tell you, I look hideous in orange.” 

A large smile finds its way onto your lips when he lets out a hearty laugh, shaking his head. “I somehow find it impossible to believe.”

“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re flirting with me, Daniel.” You tease, causing him to smirk back at you. He doesn’t answer you, but instead looks at you with a very particular look which confirms what you’ve just said. Your small stare-down is sadly broken apart by Max, who calls out Daniel’s name to let him know that Christian is looking for him. 

There is a sad look in his eyes when he realises that he has to go for real this time, but you give him a sad smile as you let him know you’ll be watching the screens for him during the quali. As you feel the wind breezing around you, you instinctively wrap your arms around your middle to get rid of the shiver the colder air provides. A look of recognition passes through Daniel’s face as he asks, “Are you cold?”

“A little, but it’s oka–”

“I’ll be right back.” Daniel announces as he leaves you and Max, causing the latter to turn to you with his phone in his hand. Max lets out a deep sigh, mumbling something under his breath in a language you don’t recognise, most likely Dutch. 

“What are you doing?” You ask him, head tilted to the side to try and see what he’s looking at on his phone. He turns it to you after a while, apparently finding what he was looking for. “What’s that?” You ask, pointing to the phone which displays a paused video of Daniel sitting in a chair. 

“He’ll probably kill me once he realises I’ve made you watch this, but the way the two of you looking at each other like lovesick puppies is making me nauseous.” He points to the phone with his head. “Play it.”

You give him a sceptical look, but do as he says and press the little triangle in the middle of the screen. The interview starts to play, and Daniel is talking about racing and the ongoing season. You let the video play for a while before looking up at Max again, more confused. “What am I supposed to see?” 

“For fuck’s sake.” Max groans, taking his phone out of your hand and fast-forwarding the video to find what he’s looking for. “Here.” 

You press play on the video once again, but this time it starts with the interviewer asking Daniel about his celebrity crush. While he’s thinking about his answer in the video, you throw an unamused look at Max, who urges you to direct your attention back to the video. Just as you move your eyes back onto the screen, his answer echoes through the phone speakers which makes your eyes widen. “What?” You ask Max as you scramble to play back the section of the interview. 

“So, any celebrity crushes we should be keeping our eyes out for?” The interviewer asks, out of frame. 

There is a thoughtful look on his face as he thinks about his answer and once he decides, there is a smile breaking on his face. “I mean, probably Y/N Y/LN. I’ve watched everything she’s in, probably multiple times, she’s just so talented.” 

You watch that particular part of the video back a couple of times before Max takes his phone out of your hands with a look asking if you’re okay. “When was this?” 

“I don’t know,” He shrugs. “A couple of years back, but I don’t think his answer has changed over the years.”

You blink a couple of times, trying to digest the fact that your celebrity crush also named you as his celebrity crush. “Oh, wow.” 

Daniel returns a few moments later with a hoodie in his hands. He smiles at you warmly as he hands it to you. “Here, that should help.” 

“Oh, Daniel, you didn’t have to.” You breath out, taking the hoodie out of his hand and putting it on with his help when he gives you a look that says he won’t accept it back. After you fix the oversized hoodie on you, you turn to him with a smile as you also put on the hat on your head. 

The smile he gives you in return when he sees you in his number and merch fills your stomach with butterflies, and Max must be feeling weird about being a part of the scene because he lets Daniel know that he’ll wait at the garage. As Max leaves, Daniel turns back at you with a sad smile on his face. “I really don’t wanna leave, but–”

“You have a job to do, Daniel.” You smile with an understanding, putting an encouraging hand on his forearm. “Although I would love to keep you to myself, I’m sure there are fans out in the world who would love to see you back as much as I do.” 

He lets out a small groan. “Please tell me you’ll be here tomorrow as well.” 

“Well, I came all this way to watch the race too, so I’ll probably be around.” You tease him. 

“So I’ll see you tomorrow?” He asks you in a hopeful voice.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” You affirm. 

After a final look, both of start walking in different directions. And just as you’re about to leave the hospitality, you hear him call out your name. When you turn to look at him over your shoulder you hear him yell, “My number looks good on you.” 

In retrospect, you wanted to arrive earlier to find a certain driver, but you couldn’t sleep last night because you couldn’t stop thinking about the day’s events. So when you wake up later than your alarm Sunday morning, you rush to get ready to leave your hotel room. By the time you arrive at Albert Park, it’s almost noon. You’re not late to see the race, there is still couple of hours until the big event, but your eyes look around the chaotic hospitality to spot Daniel. You can see a few familiar faces, some engineers you met yesterday and the drivers talking to some crew members near the garage, but there is a small frown on your face as you keep looking for the Australian driver. You’re about to give up when, suddenly, you feel someone grabbing your arm – which makes you jump back with a shriek. 

“You scared me!” You exclaim, looking at the stranger who, thankfully, lets go of your arm after your outburst. “Sorry, can I help you?” 

“Sorry! I thought you were lost and looking for your boyfriend.” They respond, pointing towards the garages. “I saw him enter a few minutes ago.” 

“I don’t have a–” You start the say, but the person is already starting to walk away to the opposite direction. “Boyfriend.” You sigh, deciding to take the advice and see if Daniel might be at the garage after all.

If you thought there was a chaos outside the garage, you’re greatly wrong, because the only word you can use to describe the Red Bull garage is chaotic. There are crew members everywhere, trying to get the cars ready for the upcoming race. So, you do your best to slip through them without disturbing their work. Some of the members you met yesterday greet you, which makes you smile as you greet them back. You catch a familiar set of eyes, which lose the boredom in them and widen with recognition once they meet yours and he starts walking towards you.

He's beaming by the time he reaches you, as he exclaims, “You’re here!” 

“Hi!” You greet him and then pull him for a quick hug.  

“I’m glad you made it, Y/N.” He smiles down at you, without letting you go, and then gestures around the garage. “Have you looked around?” 

You nod, matching his smile as you look up at him, “A little bit when I came in, it’s crazy out there today?” 

He lets out an affirmative voice. “It’s always like that during a race day. Where are you watching the race from?” 

“The Paddock Club, I think?” You answer him with a small frown. “We watched the quali from there yesterday.” 

He pulls away from you slowly, and begrudgingly, holding your hand and starts to pull you away from the entrance. “I have a better idea.” He walks you towards the front of the garage, stopping right in front of the barriers and asking a crew member for a headset. 

There is a playful smile on his face when he turns to you with them in his hands, which makes your eyes widen with concern. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be here?” 

He waves his hand, passing the headset to you as he assures, “Of course, it’s the best seat in the house. Plus, it’ll be easier for us to find each other.” 

“You’ve thought this through, haven’t you?” You ask him as you do your best to narrow your eyes. 

“Absolutely, yes.” He nods with excitement. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re kind of my celebrity crush.” 

You giggle in response. “Oh, I know. Max made me watch a video.” 

“He– what?”

“It was a lovely compliment.” You assure him, patting his arm with a sympathetic smile. 

“I’m going to kill–” He begins to say, but one of the engineers call out his name, telling him that they need him before the race. He turns to you with a groan, jumping over the barriers instead of going through the door, which makes you chuckle, and points to you while walking backwards. “We have to talk about this.” 

“We will.” You assure him. Just as you watch him walk by, you call out, “Daniel!”

“Yeah?” He calls back at you. 

“You’re my celebrity crush, too.” 

Instead of answering he winks at you over his shoulder, which makes you giggle. You’re sure that you’re also blushing, but decide not to think about it too much and focus on the race which is starting. You’re on the edge of your seat the entire time, from the start to the second restart to the end. The people around you are not much different, everybody holding their breaths every time one of the cars make a sharp turn. You let out an occasional gasp, or wince throughout the entire race, your hands covering your shocked expression. But, at the end, you’re happy to see that Max is P1 and Checo managed to finish the race in P5. Everyone around you seems to be sharing your opinions, since they are celebrating the good results when you take off your headset. 

Daniel finds you eventually, after speaking with some of the engineers and pit crew, and there is a huge smile on his face as he asks, “So, how’d you like it?” 

“Are you kidding me? It was insane!” You exclaim, using your hands to relay your point. “Eight cars, Daniel, eight cars! That’s crazy!” 

“I get you’ve liked it?” He asks, his eyebrows raising. 

You let out a scoff while shaking your head. “Of course I liked it!” 

“I’m glad you liked it, Y/N.” He smiles, “So, I’m your celebrity crush, huh?”

“Oh please, you already knew it!” You roll your eyes at his smug expression. “I’m wearing your number, aren’t I?”

He shrugs, letting his hands occupy themselves with the end of the hoodie you’re wearing. “And it looks good on you.” He tilts his head to get a better look at your eyes as he asks, “You’re wearing it again today? Isn’t it some sort of fashion crime in Hollywood?”

“Well, I’ve never fit in much anyway.” You shrug, letting a smirk break at your lips. “It might just become my favourite item of clothing, just so you know.” 

“Yeah? I’m happy to hear that.” 

“You should be, I’m very particular about my hoodies.”

He smiles at your comment, but his smile doesn’t reach his eyes for some reason. “When is your flight back?”

“Tuesday.” You answer him, suddenly very aware of the fact that you don’t have much time left in Melbourne at all. “But I can be convinced to stay for longer.” 

His eyes widen with surprise, excitement taking over the sad look in record time. “You can? Really?” You nod your head, which makes him pull you closer to him with the hand still holding your hoodie. “Let me take you out on a date.” His eyes seem to beg. 

You nod your head once again, tilting your head backwards to keep your gaze locked to his. “Yeah, I’d like that.” 

“Yes? Are you sure? It’s the point of no return.” There is a playful tone to his voice. 

You roll your eyes, taking off your cap and placing it onto his head. “I’m sure I’ll be fine, ‘honey badger’.” You tease. “Who knows? You might just convince me to say a while longer.” 

“Yeah, I’d like that, too.” He echoes your words from earlier. 

[jmdbjk]

They take up a lot of space in my head sometimes...

I didn't want to dwell on this in the documentary posts but I know you guys will indulge me as I ramble a little bit.

I want to elaborate on some thoughts I had while watching the second half of Episode 7 when Jungkook went over to Jimin's.

I watched it several times. I made sure to watch it once with a very critical and skeptical eye to keep myself from straying too far...nothing serious but possibly delulu...

This part of the documentary inside Jimin's apartment was filmed on March 13, 2022 following the last PTD Seoul concert.

This was BEFORE PTD Las Vegas where Jimin has told us he talked to the members about his troubles and that's when he embarked on writing the songs that would end up on his album FACE which was released A YEAR after this interview.

It seems Jimin answers his phone in the car after the concert. Tells whoever to get ready and come over and asks what kind of chicken to order. The documentary camera person is already in the car with Jimin... who is he speaking to on the phone? When we eventually see Jungkook coming over later on in this episode, it's natural to assume he was speaking to Jungkook on the phone, who was probably in another car on his way home to his own apartment after the concert, or perhaps already home since his apartment is much closer to Jamsil Olympic Stadium where PTD Seoul was held.

Inside Jimin's residence, he talks about what he does there, basically not a whole lot: eats, sleeps, drinks, has friends over, plays on the computer, and from what we've seen since, he's not much of a decorator.

He wonders if he's revealed too much. I think this was a legitimate question for him, since idols typically do not divulge this sort of thing to the fans. It's plausible to me that Jimin has to unlearn all these preconceived ideas he's had about being an idol in order to forge ahead.

Delivery fried chicken arrives and he runs to get it and runs back to the dining table. Literally runs. The door chimes as it closes. I do love watching him eat. He surely loves his food. A man after my heart.

He talks about how it naturally came about that they needed to have their own spaces. They were maturing young men, they needed their own places even though they'd lived together for so many years. He said their place in Gangnam was so small they put up temporary walls. I believe he was speaking about the house that is now a cafe, Hyuga? He says it was scary living on his own, it was so quiet.

When Jungkook arrives, the door chime sound we hear was different from what it sounded like when Jimin went to the door to get the delivery chicken.

From this footage, we can't know if Jungkook punched in the code and let himself in. Maybe he did, but this footage does not show that. Unless someone is familiar with how that particular door chime sounds when it is unlocked, when it is locked, when it opens and when it closes, we can't know what that chime meant.

We see Jungkook after he's already inside the apartment. He was followed by a camera person. I am certain the camera-person does not have Jimin's apartment's door code. Make of that what you will...perhaps Jungkook came alone and they re-enacted him entering once he got there because it'd be weird if he was just there all of a sudden... we can't know.

Incidentally (fun fact) this is the same jacket Jungkook wore in the video of receiving the President's Award during his university graduation earlier that month (Mar. 2, 2022)... yes, Jeon Jungkook is a university graduate too. He wore a jacket with "QUIT YOUR JOB" across the back of it, to accept a graduation award.... 💀

Anyway back to my delulu...

Jimin and Jungkook are chatting at the table while eating and drinking and get on the topic of their sleeping habits when Jungkook says normally he would take a bath, drink a couple beers and go to sleep and even adds now he goes to sleep earlier. Such a grown up.

Jimin says he falls asleep at 1 a.m. so he must be getting old but it doesn't matter if he falls asleep at 1 a.m. or 6-7 a.m., he sleeps until 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Jungkook says he decided not to live like that anymore... this the man who in early 2023 was staying up all night to do live broadcasts with us from his living room and waking up his neighbors belting out Unholy, etc... such a grown up.

And then Jungkook says 'oops, I sounded like Yoongi just then, never mind, live how what you want' and whoever that is off-camera wheezing... HAHAHAHAHAHA. Anyway. That whole exchange was... what is it with them? They ride the edge of smart-assy sarcasm and inside jokery with each other constantly. And this time at the expense of Yoongi! HAHAHAHA.

Jimin and Tae sometimes act similarly with each other but it is more role play and nothing like the long-running inside joke Jimin and Jungkook do all the time.

The vibe between them was identical to the one when they were sitting at the dining table that first night of In The Soop 2.

As episode 7 goes on, they show Jimin and Jungkook again, Jungkook is chopping mushrooms and Jimin says "You are doing so well on your own" and "Be careful" and the translation says Jungkook said "okay" but it sounds more to me like a "ayyy stop nagging" sound he made.

Jimin runs behind Jungkook again. Why does Jimin run so much? He's like a nervous, excited little mouse.

They're terrible Youtubers:

The ship wars and solo wars and stupid-things-you-could-ask-during-a-live wars over whether or not Jimin ever ate Jungkook's ramen... FINALLY, after posting all those recipes last year and Jimin saying he wants Jungkook to cook that for him, we see JUNGKOOK HAS COOKED RAMEN FOR JIMIN! Cooked it for him way before any of these wars began too... what a waste of energy.

No, Jimin didn't go over to Jungkook's to eat it, Jungkook came to Jimin and cooked it for him.

Ok, but this is the part that made me need to pause and rewind and write this long-ass post:

Jimin tells us that a friend of his helped him realize he needed to explore the possibility he was depressed.

He recounts the story as they were at Jimin's apartment drinking and they had a small argument. The next morning Jimin wakes up, has totally forgotten the argument and goes over to the friend's to help begin moving. They apologized to each other and the friend came over again that night and the friend said "I think you are severely depressed. You act like you aren't, but you've been acting strange. If you're having a hard time, tell me." Jimin said he didn't think he was having a hard time and the friend told Jimin to take some time to think about it. Jimin says a lot changed after that.

This moment when Jimin is retelling this story, "yet you act like you aren't, but you've been acting strange. If you're having a hard time, tell me." Jimin reaches over and actually touches Jungkook. Look at the way they are looking at each other?

The way Jungkook sat there, looking straight at Jimin while Jimin recounted that conversation/day/moment, chewing on his bottom lip as is his habit, Jungkook nodding during certain points that Jimin was retelling... very very brief moments where body language reveals a lot.

Maybe the "friend" Jimin was supposed to help move, the one who told Jimin he seemed severely depressed... was Jungkook?

You can call me delulu if you want. I see what I see and I hear what I hear.

They have not shown this type of closeness amongst the other members in this entire documentary. And here is Jungkook sitting in Jimin's home, while Jimin tells us this very intimate detail about himself.

If Jungkook was the one... it's plausible, the one who came over to drink, just like they were doing this evening... the one who was moving and Jimin was going to help him. The one who he can look in the eyes and recount this story and his friend can look him straight back in the eye and nod in agreement.

Why retell this story with Jungkook sitting next to him? There were other moments when we know Jungkook is there, he could have been off camera while Jimin told the staff about this intimate moment with his friend. No. He said it while they sat next to each other looking at each other.

It's possible. If not, it seems possible that Jungkook has already heard this story.

Jimin shares more than we've ever heard from him: that he falls into a labyrinth the moment he starts to ponder about what happiness is. He says of course their work and many other things require attention to detail but it's ok if there is vagueness (or imperfection) too. If you get too caught up in the meaning of things (in the importance of things), you feel like you have to risk it all to accomplish them and its ok to let some of it go, enjoy the simplicity of things and not get emotional over everything ... this sounds like Jimin has matured and has tried to push away perfectionism.

He believes he is in a very healthy place mentally right now (at the time of that interview, March 13, 2022) but can't say the same about his body, but he wants to stay healthy as he grows older together with the fans. And Jungkook is still there, but off camera.

This interview was almost two years ago. And now their first solo career endeavors have been accomplished and these two are doing their military obligation together. They've come a long way. We will see them again next year. It won't be as long as it feels.

Anyway, going back to my delulu cave now. Carry on.

[dreamingofep]

Sinned Awakening pt. 8 🩸

An AU Elvis fic

(Vampire!Elvis/Vampire Austin!Elvis × reader)

Character/Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Request: No

Prompt: Getting promoted to be Elvis full time housekeeper, you realize the man holds secrets beyond belief and your undeniable attraction makes you fear the unknown. [Fem!Reader]

TW: Cussing, tension, angst, some smut, aggression, blood/gore!!!

Rating: Explicit

Word Count: 9.6K

A/N: Hello everyone!

Welcome to part 8 everyone! I appreciate your patience as this was a MONSTER to write! This is Vampire!Elvis so there is going to be mentions of blood/gore from here on out. If that's not your thing, sorry but it's needed for the story. I hope you enjoy the story from Elvis' perspective in this part. He is very very bad so please be prepared 🤭 I think it was important to understand him better. Please let me know what you think in the comments or send me a message!

If you’d like to start reading from the beginning, start here. 🩸

Thank you again!

Sorry for any spelling mistakes and overall goofs.🖤

Day 1 With You

The sunshine slips through the cracks of the heavy curtains and illuminates the otherwise stark bedroom of his. He groans and shuts his book harshly and goes to close the curtains. He huffs, pushing his hair back, and sits on the edge of the bed. It was only noon but he was so restless and wanted to get out of the penthouse. He knew it wasn’t an option though. It would be too easy to be recognized and he was starving. His lack of control was worsening by the day and the longer he starved himself, the more he craved blood.

It was all he could think about. When could he sink his teeth into something warm and feed himself to contentment? He knew it was morally wrong and that’s why he tried to contain himself and ultimately hide up here all day and drown himself in books. Not only is his appetite ravenous, but the longer he goes not feeding, the weaker he physically gets.

He gets up and goes to the bathroom to take a shower which distracts him from the burning thirst that resides in his throat. The bathroom light makes him wince and he hunches over the sink, annoyed that he has to walk around feeling like this. Looking up at his reflection, those red eyes stare back at him and he feels disgusted looking at them. He doesn’t have a normal life already and he can’t even look normal because of this choice he made. He felt no physical pain but the thirst that resided in him made him feel like he could collapse any second. The last time he felt like this was in the Army. How some nights they didn’t eat and the blistering cold penetrated so deep to his bones he felt as if he was dying. 

He takes another deep breath and opens the medicine cabinet. The short vials stared at him menacingly and the burning in his throat felt like fire the more he looked at them. There was a small amount of blood in the viles but enough to calm his thirst for a short time. He grabs one of them out of the cabinet and takes the small cork top off. The smell of it hits his nose and he grumbles, lifting it to his lips and letting the crimson liquid pour down his throat. It was just what he needed and he made sure to not let a drop go to waste. He tosses the vial in the trash and looks back up at his eyes which are now a stormy blue, a bit more human-like. But it wasn’t enough. He could drink all the remaining vials in the cabinet and calm his thirst. But the issue of getting more blood became an issue. 

There were other vampires in the area and the common thing was to steal from blood banks. However, with more coming to Las Vegas, it was becoming too conspicuous that all these blood bags turned up missing at the closest blood banks. Elvis’ men went out and got him as much blood as they could so Elvis would have enough strength to sing and put on the best show possible. 

For the last few years, Elvis restrained from feeding on humans, even how much he loved it. It was the best way to feed. 

He became too addicted to getting a girl in his suite, make love to them, feed just until she couldn’t take it anymore, and making them forget he ever bit them. He had never felt so good. But people started to notice the weird behavior of the girls that would come out of Elvis’ suite and suddenly not remember certain portions of the night. 

He still had some morality in some sense and knew it was wrong and had to find other ways to feed himself. So that’s when the blood bank idea came to be. It wasn’t terrible but not enough for Elvis. 

A knock on his bedroom door turns his attention and he quickly goes to answer it. 

“Hey, EP. Just reminding you that a new housekeeper starts today,” Jerry says stoically.

Elvis grumbles annoyed and looks at Jerry.

“Are you kidding me? Another one? The last one was good. She was quiet and kept to herself and I never wanted to suck the life out of her.” He says annoyed. “This is not a good time for someone new to start man. My appetite is not under control and I can’t risk anything,” he explains.

Jerry nods his head and looks down to the floor.

“I understand EP, but they assured me this new girl is really good and one of the best. You can control your thirst, I’m sure she won’t be a problem,” he assures.

Elvis takes a deep breath and nods his head too.

“I’ll make sure to lay down the rules with her. I don’t think I can handle a human here for more than an hour,” he huffs.

Jerry agrees and tells him that you’ll be here at three. Elvis thanks him and closes the door to his bedroom again and prepares himself to meet you. The other housekeeper never said she was leaving to him and was very peculiar. She never asked questions about when she would find blood splatter on the sheets or why he never made any contact with her for fear she would get concerned over his body temperature. Ever since getting bit, his body temperature drastically dropped and made it clear that he was not human. In the rare cases, when he did have to shake people’s hands, he made the excuse that he was not feeling well and usually people would not ask other questions about it. He decided to get back into bed and continue to read his book until he had to get up to meet this new housekeeper.

Three o'clock came before he knew it and he heard the lurch of the elevator make its way up to the penthouse. He runs his hands across his face, not mentally prepared to be so close to a human that he’s never met. He grabs his sunglasses to hide his dark eyes and more importantly, hide the hunger that resides in them. He puts on a new shirt and begins to button it when he hears a peculiar sound.

Thump, thump, thump thump…

A heartbeat. A very peculiar one. He’s never heard something like this. It was like music to his ears. The sound kept getting closer and louder.

Nervous little human, he thinks. Good, she should be nervous, she has no idea what I am capable of, he scoffs to himself.

The sound of the front door opens and quickly shuts, but the sound of your heartbeat only quickens when you don’t see anyone around. 

He quietly opens the bedroom door to examine you. That’s when it hits him fully. Your scent. So alluring and beckoning. He literally had to hold his breath to keep his fangs from descending. He knows he can’t step another inch closer to you or disaster can strike. He watches you look around the living room and the current state it's in. Last night’s party was a lively one no less and the evidence was all on the floor. You keep peering around and he decides to stand in the corner of the room, motionless, examining you.

The sound of your heart pitter pattering away combined with the way you smelled was practically killing Elvis. This was exactly what he didn’t need. He didn’t need a new housekeeper at this time where he was practically starved. But to have you here smelling this irresistible was going to be an issue no doubt. His lack of restraint has always been an issue, even when he was a human. He always did what he wanted and if he liked something, he was going to get it. Nothing changed in that aspect once he became a vampire. You smelled so sweet to him, practically like honey and the sound of your heart was like a symphony. Like it was perfectly created for his ears alone and rose and fell so easy for him. What he would give to make that orchestra only play for him and get you all excited. Get you so close so he can feel your heart pound against his body and keep the symphony playing for him.

Fucking hell this is not going to end well.

He closes his eyes and tries to refocus, get her to clean this up, and get her out, he thinks.

“About time you showed up,” he says gruffly. He watches you snap your head in his direction and sees the most beautiful eyes. The way they glimmered in the low light but nevertheless brightened up the room almost instantly. 

Oh lord, she’s beautiful…

Your heart danced wildly again, nerves rushing through you and it made Elvis even more eager to be around you. No matter how dangerous it may be for you.

You clear your throat nervously, “I’m very sorry to keep you waiting Mr. Presley. My name is y/n, I’m your new housekeeper.” You say timidly, placing your hand in front of you to shake his. He looks down at your hand, and your heart pumps louder.

Don’t touch her, don’t touch her, he thinks. He tries not to recoil from you but he has to get away from you.

 He looks down at you with hunger, he knows you can’t see the ravenous look he has in his eyes but he knows he doesn’t have enough control to even shake your hand without the thought of trying to take a bite out of you. He watches intensely how you quickly retract your hand and put it at your side, fidgeting with the hem of your skirt.

Hmm good stay nervous, I want to hear your heart louder, he thinks.

“Um, where would you like me to start cleaning?” You ask.

“Where do you think?” He snaps coldly at you. This makes your breathing accelerate and he likes it.

“Okay, no problem. Do you mind if I open the drapes so I can see what I’m cleaning?” You ask gently.

“I don’t care, Just get it done,” he snaps at you. He starts to make his way to the other side of the room by the sofa. As he passes you, he gets another whiff of you passing by and his mouth salivates from it.

He studies you, watching your every move and how careful you are. He notices your wandering eyes. How you want him. He knew how he looked and most humans wanted him. That was part of his curse, the way he allured people in just so he could get close enough to bite. But you kept glancing over at him, unable to resist his presence. Sitting there with his legs open, he watches how your eyes get drawn to his legs and bulge. A smirk forms on his face, liking the attention he’s getting from you. He watches you clear the floor and go to the cleaning cart to grab something. His thirst was becoming insatiable the longer you were in here. His eyes bored into your backside and wandered down to your perfect legs. Your uniform didn’t showcase your physique very well but he wanted to see more of you. Particularly on his bed…

“Make sure to dust the other bedrooms,” he directs, “and under no circumstances do you go in my bedroom without my permission. I forbid it,” he says gruffly. 

You quickly agree and move away from him to start on the next room. He follows you into the bedrooms and he gets dangerously closer to you the more you move.

Just get her closer and do it…

Your heart never calmed down and your nerves got the best of you. He wasn’t so concerned about how you were cleaning, he just wanted to keep you in here as long as he could so he could make his move. 

He had to hurry up and figure out where he wanted you. His meal. Where he was going to take his first bite of you and drink his problems away. He wanted to get you in his bedroom, pin you to the bed, ravage your neck, and then, make you forget it ever happened. He was too indecisive though. He might as well just do it now, you would probably resist him in some way and he should just surprise you and make it quick. 

Come here, he whispers, compelling you to him so he can get what he wants. You don’t respond though, and this shocks Elvis. Maybe he’s weaker than he thinks and he can’t compel you in the condition he’s in. 

No, that can’t be, he’s always been able to compel no matter the circumstance. Maybe you just didn’t hear him…

Come here honey, he says a bit louder, you turn around to look at him but instead of obeying, you leave the room to start cleaning another area. He is beyond baffled, were you resisting him in some way? How was this even possible no human can resist a vampire’s abilities? 

His frustration got the best of him and he was fed up with not getting what he wanted. It’s easier to have you under his control while he feeds from you rather than having you flail around and try to escape. 

Just do it when she’s not looking…

Devour her.

You move quickly and efficiently throughout the suite and try not to linger as his eyes continue to bore into you. Finally finishing the remaining room, you are about to excuse yourself when his keen eyes scan the room for anything you missed. 

The glimmer of a champagne bottle that rolled underneath the piano catches his eye and he thinks this is the perfect opportunity to get her back turned and he goes in for the bite. He smiles to himself, “There’s a bottle underneath the piano,” he grumbles.

Your face drops in disappointment as you aren’t as thorough as you thought. He watches you move the piano bench aside and crawl underneath, scanning for the bottle hidden under the curtains. His eyes trail over your backside, liking what he’s seeing. He moves quickly and carefully, walking to the piano where he wants to pull you out from underneath it and suck you dry.

He hears your bewildering hum as you did not see the glass there. You start to retract back out from the piano and he’s inches away from your body. His breathing quickens and he feels his mouth water, getting ready to let his fangs descend down and bite. He wants to grab you but he wants you to turn around so he can look at you.

You turn around quickly and your body jumps, making you gasp at his close proximity. Your hands involuntarily squeeze on the bottle, making it shatter in your hands and making you cry out. 

You gasp as you feel shards of glass get pierced into your palms. You drop the remnants of the bottle on the floor and watch the glass fall at your feet. Letting out a frustrated groan, you stare at your palms filled with glass as blood starts to quickly leak out of the wounds, the pain stabbing at you over and over. 

The scent of you floods his nose and makes his eyes roll back. The frenzy inside him thirsty for blood over overtook everything inside him. Elvis lets out a frustrated groan and touches you for the first time. It sends an electric shock through his body and combined with the blood spilling out of you, he is on fire. 

His grasp in your wrist is tight and he can tell you notice the unusual amount of strength he has. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” He barks loudly, sending another chill through your body. You try to back up and the piano keys hit your thigh, making a tumultuous amount of sounds behind you as you try to get free from his grip. Your balance gets wobbly and you place your other hand on the keys to keep yourself from not topping over. He looks at the keys covered in your blood and he feels his eyes burn as they start to shift into the terrifying black and red hues. 

The more you move, the more blood comes out of your wounds, and the sound of your scared heartbeat pounds loudly in his ears. 

The pressure of this only makes the shards of the glass go deeper inside your hand and you cry out again. 

“Ahhh! Please, I'm so sorry about this. Let me clean this up,” you cry. You glance over at the other hand he is holding up and see the trails of blood drip down your arm and his, along with his fingers also covered in your crimson blood. Your eyes grow wide and your breathing becomes uneven. 

“Get the fuck out,” he growls violently, disgust filling his voice. Your body shakes uncontrollably and he quickly lets go of your wrist, your feet try to scurry away but they feel like jello, and you manage to stumble your way to the door. You pick the large shards out of your palm and throw them on the floor. You don’t care about the mess you’ve made you just need to get away from him.

You slam the door and he hears the ding of the elevator and the descending of it down to the basement. 

He can’t control the descending of his fangs any longer and hisses when he feels them. He drops to his knees in the middle of the suite looking at your blood dripping down his hand and arm. There was no control left in his body and wanted, no, needed to taste you. Dripping like decadent honey down his body. 

He licks his finger carefully and groans deeply when he tastes you. It was the best thing he’s ever had. His tongue laps up the rest of what’s on his hand and licks up his forearm not leaving anything behind. 

He instantly felt his strength rise and his hunger subside. You were perfect, so fulfilling he couldn’t get over it. There was not just one word to describe how to taste. You were sweet and savory and overwhelmingly delicious. He's never fed on anyone like you. Most people were just satisfactory but not you. Oh no, you were the most satisfying thing that graced this planet. 

“Oh my god, fuck,” he hisses. 

He looks at the shards of glass left on the ground and carefully picks them up. He was going to save the last of the remnants for another time and savor you. 

His breathing remains heavy and uneven and cusses under his breath. He walks over the the piano where your remaining blood was spilled. He places the shards of glass carefully on top of the instrument and sits down on the bench. His eyes cannot comprehend what he has in front of him. He wipes his finger across the ivory key, gathers it on the top of his finger, then places it in his mouth. Another shock wave of pleasure hits him as he swallows. His hand grapples onto the lip of the piano top where he tries to calm his breathing. 

Jerry comes barreling in the door looking at him hunched over at the piano and stops in his tracks when he also smells your blood. 

“Oh god EP, are you okay? What the hell happened?”

“I… I don’t know. I wanted to bite her so bad and she got so nervous around me and broke a bottle,” he says in a daze, holding up the shards in his hands. 

“God she is amazing… I’ve never experienced anything like this… I want to keep her around,” he instructs. 

Jerry’s face grows panicked and he shakes his head. 

“EP I-I-I don’t think that’s a good idea. You can barely control-,” he says before Elvis cuts him off. 

“You do not tell me what I can and cannot do you hear?!” He commands, raising his voice and striding quickly to look him in the eyes.  

Jerry looks down at the floor and nods his head in agreement. 

“Write a letter to housekeeping that I want her to come back up here tomorrow. I want her here permanently,” Elvis says gruffly. 

Elvis moves past Jerry and out the suite doors. 

“NO, EP where are you going?!”

He quickly runs down the stairs in a flash and can smell you in the garage. Your wounds are bandaged but the scent of you is something he’ll never be able to forget for as long as he lives. 

He hides in the shadows as you briskly walk to your car. The sound of your fast heartbeat gives him a smile as he inches closer. Then, he hears you weeping, struggling to get air in between sobs. His heart suddenly ached for you, seeing you sad made him want to comfort you in some way. 

You pop your head up from the steering wheel, feeling a particular set of eyes on you, but Elvis is already back upstairs in the Penthouse. He sits down on the sofa and takes a moment to breathe, contemplating what he wants to do about you.

*

Day 2 With You

One of the worst things about his curse, he didn’t sleep. He no longer could rest in the traditional sense and the constant wandering thoughts that swarmed his head were like a dense fog. The scent of you lingered in the suite and it only made Elvis more desperate for you. He wanted you back up here so he could bask in your presence and try to figure you out.

He paced the rooms all night, trying to rationalize why you didn’t succumb to being compelled by him. He hadn’t experienced anything like this in the last few years he was a vampire. There had to be a rational explanation. He tried to blame it on the fact he was starving and he wasn’t focused. He wanted to try today and see what would happen. He felt physically stronger just from the small amount of blood he consumed. His eyes were a much more vibrant blue and his skin didn’t look so ghostly.

He continues to grow restless and looks at the clock. It was only one o clock and he let out a frustrated growl. He quickly rushes to the door and peers out into the hallway.

“Call her up here. I want her up here now.” He barks.

The men look at each other nervously and stay silent. 

“I’m not asking again!” He shouts, making everyone jump.

Jerry was the first to face him but kept his head lowered.

“She doesn’t start til three… that was the agreement with the hotel…” he says sullenly.

Elvis grunts and frustratedly puts his hands through his hair, “fuck, fine. You get her up here the second the clock turns three.” He barks before slamming the door. He wallows in his own self-despair for the next few hours until he finally sees the clock reach three and gloats with happiness.

He could hear your nervous heart from down in the basement and get closer and closer as you rode the elevator up there. 

You quickly make your way to the door and step inside. The decedent smell fills your nose again and you quietly close the door behind you. There’s so much more light in the room today and as you turn around, you realize the curtains are all open, letting in that fresh sunlight. Your eyes dart to the moving figure moving in your peripheral. Elvis stands a few feet away from you in all black again, a white shirt buttoned down to the middle of his torso and his hair perfectly combed back in his signature way.

He smiles to himself, thankful he didn’t completely scare you away and glad he could be in such close proximity to you today. The sound of your nervous heart filled his ears and didn’t stop the more you looked at him. He had to admit you were stunning, the way you looked was like something out of a book, too perfect for words. Your beauty outshined anyone and he was in awe.

Your mouth felt dry and you weren’t sure what he was going to say to you after yesterday’s events but had to try to talk to this brooding man before you.

“H-hello, Mr. Presley,” you say intimidated, giving a slight smile at the last second.

Your voice called out to him like a siren. The way you said his name made him feel something he couldn’t pinpoint. All he knew was he liked it. He liked you around and he liked his name coming from your lips. He noticed how smooth your skin was and it made him want to touch it. 

Touch her, touch her…

“Hello, y/n. I’m glad you’re here,” he says with a grin. He makes his way toward you in a slow, nonchalant manner and raises his hand out in front of him. 

He waits in anticipation for your skin to touch his. He didn’t care about the noticeable temperature difference, he just needed to know what it felt like.

You realize he’s not wearing any sunglasses today and can see how blue his eyes are for the first time. They’re electric, so captivating, and alluring. They’re like clear blue tropical waters, something you’ve only seen in books. No photograph could properly capture this shade of blue and you just wanted to swim in them. This makes your heartbeat flutter again and you try to regain focus on what Elvis is saying to you. He smiles to himself as he watches you analyze his features.

“I’m very sorry for how I acted yesterday. Maybe we can start over. I hope you don’t think I’m a rude asshole,” he suggests with a chuckle. 

He watches you look down at his hand waiting for you to grab it. You carefully wrap your fingers around his large hand and shake it. He holds his breath, relishing the sensation of your warm skin on his. It felt perfect and he thinks he found his new obsession.

You.

You look up into his eyes willingly for the first time and meet his alluring blue eyes, melting into them.

“It’s alright Mr. Presley, I was also a bit nervous yesterday and wasn’t myself.” You assure. You notice he still has your hand in his grasp, rubbing the faintest circle on the back of your hand distracting you from making a coherent thought. He wanted to tease you, make you fall apart for him and he knew you had the same reaction to his touch as he did with yours. Even though his temperature was off from yours, the way his skin felt on yours was obsessional. The way it tingled effortlessly through your body down to your toes and you wanted more. He loves it when he hears your heart continue to dance in your chest and makes his gaze intensify. 

“Are you feeling better Mr. Presley? You were very…cold yesterday,” you say shyly.

He lets out a small hum before answering, “Never better honey. You definitely brightened up my day,” he says coyly. 

He watches how your cheeks flush red, unable to resist his charm. He regretfully lets go of your hand and starts to walk toward the couches.

“Please, sit with me. I want to get to know you better,” he coos, drawing you in and compelling you to his every last wish. Standing there unable to speak, you nervously smile and shake your head at him.

“No, that’s okay Mr. Presley I don’t sit down in the guest's spaces when I’m on the clock. I really should get started cleaning.” You defer. 

How the hell… he thinks.

“Oh no, please, I insist,” he says cheekily, hoping you will finally listen to him.

“That’s okay Mr. Presley. If you want, you can ask me questions while I clean, I’m okay with that,” you say cheerfully. Turning to your cleaning cart you left here last night, you grab a trash bag and begin to clean up the remnants of last night's party. 

He was beyond baffled. He has never experienced any human to so easily resist a vampire’s abilities. He needs to try and find any lore that talks about this. There had to be a logical explanation.

You quickly glance over at him sitting on the couch, watching you like a hawk with a smirk on his face. 

“What did you want to know about me?” You ask, picking up bottles and throwing plates away. 

Elvis hums softly to himself, trying to find the words to ask, “How old are you?” 

“I’m 30, but I really feel like I’m 16 still,” you quip cutely. You hear a low chuckle come from him. “How old are you,” you throw back to him. 

“Hmm, I guess I’m 38 but sometimes I feel 33, maybe even 21 at times but based on how many times I’ve traveled around the sun, I’m just 38.” He remarks. 

“Okay, I’ll say you’re young at heart,” You say and you hear him chuckle. 

“What do you like to do for fun?” He asks next. 

This actually makes you pause and think because quite frankly, you don’t know. 

“Well, it’s hard to say… I work pretty much all the time so the days I do have off, I just clean up my apartment or go swimming or something. I just don’t have a lot of time for fun,” you say a bit defeated. He looks at you with sorrow in his eyes, hearing the sadness that is behind those words. 

“I’m sorry to hear that. That’s no way to live,” He noted. You nod in agreement as you tie off the trash bag and reach for another one. 

“Yeah, it’s not the easiest, but I get by and that’s all that matters,” you try to say cheerfully. 

“So, do you ever leave the penthouse?” You ask him cheekily. 

He snickers and nods his head, “only when I have to. I just don’t like it. There’s nothing out there for me,” he broods. 

“Ah I see… do you miss being able to walk down the street without being noticed?” 

“Sometimes, but my fans gave me all of this so I can’t complain,” he says stoically. 

You fall quiet but be doesn’t mind. He likes to watch you how you move in your clumsy little human way.

You move to the next room and he follows closely behind you. This was one of his guest bedrooms and he sometimes liked to read in here. It was dark and decorated with candles and had books along the walls. This was where he kept the books on the lore of supernatural creatures and history. He had a lot of time on his hands so reading was the only other thing to keep him occupied and not think about feeding so much.

He sits on the edge of the bed as you reach to dust the books and the shelves above the bed, something you didn’t get an opportunity to get to yesterday. His eyes wander over your body as you have your back turned toward him. He can’t help but stare at the curve of your ass and how your long hair flawlessly fell down your back. When you dusted, you made short little movements that made your body jiggle in the best of ways. Elvis keeps staring at you, wanting you to move more for him. You made short, cute little hums trying to reach the shelf and Elvis liked how you sounded.

A wave of hunger washed over him, but this time it was different. This hunger was for your body. Pure raging lust burned through him and wanted to have his way with you in this room. He didn’t enjoy sex anymore like he did when he was human. He would use sex to get whoever he was feeding on all excited and their heart pounding just enough before he sunk his teeth into them. He didn’t see it as pleasure anymore and thought of it as an easier way to get a girl in his most private room and feed to his heart’s content. It didn’t interest him anymore and he could barely remember the last time he made love to someone and really enjoyed it. He didn’t feel like he had enough control to be so close to a human and not think about taking a bite. It was too risky and he was trying to be better.

This wasn’t what he was thinking about though. Sure, it would be nice to feed on you in such a way but right now, all he wanted was to bend you over, rip your skirt off, and stuff you to the hilt with his cock. Making you moan his name over and over and beg him for more. God, he knew you would feel like heaven there was no doubt about that. He wanted to get you so wet and make your core throb for his cock. He already tasted your blood but right now he wanted to taste the arousal that would be spilling out of you once he made you nice and needy. It would be so easy for him to put his hands all over your body, discover where you like to be touched, and make you beg for it. His hands trailing over your soft skin, squeezing those perfect legs and spreading them apart so he can fit in between them and fuck you to his heart’s content.

He sucked in a sharp breath as he felt his cock twitch in his pants with just the thought of having you. He adjusted himself and knew you wouldn’t notice and sat back down on the bed. Those wandering thoughts were killing him though. You suddenly became his new addiction in a matter of twenty-four hours and he thought it was bad enough that he craved your blood, now he craved your body on a new unprecedented level. He wanted to watch you writhe on the bed and scratch down his back as his cock split you in two, all night long. 

Oh god no you can’t, he thinks. It’s too risky…

No, he can and he will. He needed to fuck you and have you make those beautiful sounds he knows you make when you’re getting pleasured.

He feels his cock grow harder down his leg and he starts to get uncomfortable. He starts to reach out to grab your arm to make you look at him but he doesn’t. He quickly retracts his hand and just takes in the view and bites his lip, trying to calm himself down.

You look over your shoulder at him and see where his gaze is directed at. Your cheeks feel on fire being the object this man is looking at lustfully. You haven’t gotten this much attention from a man in years and you can’t lie to yourself, you kind of like it.  

You get off the bed and fix the comforter, fluffing up the pillows as you stare back at him with a similar intensity. 

“Can I ask what you’re staring at?” You jest.

He presses his lips together to not show the deviant little smirk he wants to give you and shakes his head. “Nothing honey don’t worry. You’re just very beautiful that’s all,” he says calmly, ignoring the hard erection forming in his pants. 

His eyes continue to wander and they stop dead in their tracks when he sees your finger. It was faint, but you had a suntan line on your left ring finger. 

Fuck, she’s married…

“So you’re married?” He says flatly, trying to keep the agitation in his voice to a minimum.

“Huh?” You say confused.

“You have a suntan on your ring finger, I assumed it’s because you’re married and don’t wear your ring while you work,” he observes.

“Oh, well no, I’m not actually married. I’m just engaged and yeah I don’t normally wear the band at work so it doesn’t get damaged… You have good eyes, Mr. Presley,” you say jokingly. 

“Mhmm…how long have you been engaged?” he continues.

“A couple of years,” you say embarrassed.

Years?! What kind of fucking idiot would wait that long to marry you? he thinks angrily.

“Why is that?” He snaps. You shoot your eyes back to him and he’s now standing up, looking at you like he could jump over this bed and attack you.

“I don’t know… We haven’t gotten around to setting a date or picking a venue or anything. It just isn’t the right time,” you say sheepishly, defeat tainting your voice.

He knew he shouldn’t touch you, but you called out to him so strong he couldn’t fight it. 

“You deserve better,” he mumbles, reaching out and touching your cheek with his cold hand, rubbing his thumb softly there, giving your body a shiver. His eyes drink you in as he stands there with your face in his hand, chest beginning to rise and fall quicker. You watch as his chest heaves, inspecting every detail of your face and trailing down to your collarbone to the swell of your breast. He didn’t have to see you naked to know you were the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. It took every ounce of willpower he had left in him to not push you up against his body and kiss you. He wanted to kiss you passionately and feel your body become weak for him to take care of you. Your skin gets chills as he continues to stare at your body and he notices, bringing a smirk to his face. 

“If only you knew…” he trails off.

If only you knew how bad I want you…

You grab his wrist, feeling your breathing increase with his close proximity making the room spin. Your vision gets blurry and you grab onto him tighter. You wanted him to comfort you in way you didn’t quite know about. You just wanted his body close to yours, like that would fix all your problems. A complete shift in thought compared to yesterday when all you wanted to do was say thirty yards away from him. 

“Elvis, I-I -I should get back to work,” you say a little breathlessly. 

His chest continues to rise and fall quickly and he bites his lower lip, nodding his head to you. 

“Of course, I’ll leave you alone. Leave whenever you would like,” he says quickly. Before he turns away, he takes his hands off of your face and gives the back of your bandaged hand a kiss. His lips barely grazed your skin but the way his lips dragged down along your fingertips before he left was all too much to handle. 

The way his body screamed for more was frightening. Why did he want you so bad? He walked to the other side of the suite and felt like he was on fire. Every cell in his body wanted you and he knew it wasn’t going to disappear overnight. He knew you felt the same too, he could sense it. Just the way you looked at him or how your body desperately tries not to touch him but loses that battle instantly.

He grabs his wrist you touched moments ago and feels it tingle and your scent stays on him. 

More, you need more…

That stupid voice inside his head wasn’t shutting up and he knew this was going to be a very long night. He looked down at his pants and he sees the bulge in his pants waiting to come free. He winces and tries to ignore it for now. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to pleasure himself but would wait til you left. There wasn’t much else to clean in the suite so he knew it wouldn’t be long until you left.

After some time, he takes a shower and clears his head a bit. These last few days were overwhelming, to say the least. He wanted to know so much more about you but he was afraid to lose control with you around. He would keep you here all day if he could but he knew that wasn’t an option. The way you talked about being engaged bothered him. You didn’t seem overly enthusiastic about the whole thing and it seemed more like a burden to you. He didn’t know the whole situation, but from what he had observed in the past with other women, they were happy to be engaged and didn’t talk about it the way you had.

He wanted to make you happy and carry this weight you had on your shoulders. He didn’t know if it was because of your fiancé but he was determined to find out. Getting out of the shower, he drys himself off with a towel and puts on his black and red robe that had his initials embroidered on the left side of his chest. He looks at himself in the mirror and sees a pathetic creature. His eyes were still vibrant but he was still in need of you. 

He paces his room for a while, outweighing the negatives of having you around as his housekeeper. Other than the fact he could lose all control and kill you, he needed you to stay. Maybe this would be a good thing and he can learn some control. He wasn’t too confident on that part but he’d sure as hell try.

It was getting late and the sun was setting. His mind was wandering again and the craving for your body began to worsen. He hadn’t heard you rustle in the suite for hours and assumed you left already for the day. His mind kept replaying when he touched your hand and how you touched his. How satisfying you were just to be close to him was almost enough. 

But Elvis became greedy and it wasn’t going to be enough for him. He closed his eyes and all he could see was those pretty eyes matched with those pretty lips. Of how he wished those eyes could be looking into his while he fucked you on this bed. 

He felt his length harden and he groaned, wishing you were here right now, wrapping your lips around him and helping him come. He rubbed his eyes and wished he could get your body off his mind. 

He went to put on the tv and a devious thought popped into his head. He had this porn video he got a few years ago and for the most part, he liked it. He just wanted to distract himself, not think about you, and just block it all out.

He rummages through his tapes and finds the x X-rated movie hidden behind the box. He puts it into the receiver and sits on the end of his bed. Adjusting the volume, he watches the scene unfold before him. How the man starts kissing the woman passionately and the way she would moan because of it. His finger found her soaked panties and teased her there.

Oh fuck, I want to do that to you, he thinks.

 Elvis can feel his cock throb against his leg, begging to be touched. So much for trying to distract himself from you because that’s all he’s thinking about as he watches the TV. He starts to take his robe off, uncovering his body and looking at his leaking shaft.

Suddenly, his ears pick up a nervous little heartbeat. Yours. He doesn’t glance over at the door but he knows you’re watching. He stupidly forgot to close the door it seems.

Or he wanted you to stumble in on him in this condition and see what a mess you’ve made him…

He brings his hand up to his mouth and he spits in it, wrapping it around his length and he starts to rub it back and forth in his hand. You didn’t care what was on the TV you just wanted to watch him. He focuses on the tip of his cock, rubbing some of his precum along the shaft. There’s a vein that pops from his neck the longer he does this, making you wish you could just bite there. He moans from the feeling of this and hearing your breathing quicken makes him agonizingly needy. Every time he shut his eyes in pleasure, your face was there beckoning him to come apart.

The moans escalate from the movie and his hand picks up pace, making his own delicious moans that drown out the others. He focuses on your heartbeat and the sound of your blood rushing to your core, making you dripping wet for him.  

“Oh fuck,” he moans deeply. 

Another moan slips from his beautiful mouth and his hand jerks his length harder. Your breathing picks up and that need inside you grows. You feel so naughty, so dirty for even remotely like this. 

He likes hearing you get this way for him and wishes he could look into your eyes. But he relies on his senses to show him how you’re feeling. His eyes glance at the mirror and he can see how you’re looking at him. Your face dripping with lust and need.

God, I want you. I want you now, he trembles. 

“Mmm, yes… you like that,” he groans.

Your eyes meet in the mirror, his hungry, and yours, petrified. The sound of your scared little heart made Elvis’ mouth water. You sounded so perfect and wanted you here in his lap. But you don’t do that and run as quickly as you can out of the suite. Elvis feels frustrated that he scared you off. There was no point in trying to talk to you as that would probably freak you out more. 

He turned the tv off and groaned, looking at his hard cock dripping with precum. He wanted to come and make himself feel something good. He brought a towel with him from the bathroom and laid it on the bed. He stands at the edge of the bed, one knee bent up on the bed and focused on you again, and rubbed his hand along his shaft, moaning heavily as he felt his orgasm about to release. His mind keeps picturing how you’d look taking his cock, your tight walls hugging him as you took each inch of him. He grunts as he feels the heat form in his lower belly and his cock begins to twitch. His thick, white seed comes out of him quickly and he groans in pleasure. Images of you continue to fill his head and for the first time in a long time, he feels so good. He watches the last of his seed come out of him and he hunches over the bed, almost breathless. He could not wait to have you all to himself. 

There wasn’t a logical explanation for why he felt this way for you but he wasn’t complaining. He wanted to experience this feeling over and over. More importantly, he wanted that feeling to be with you. He wanted to see you tonight and be in your presence again. He quickly gets some clothes on and rushes out the door. His men throw him concerned looks and he doesn’t bother to tell them where he’s going.

He starts to run and follows your scent down the street of Paradise Road and before he knows it, he’s in front of a small apartment unit with your car in the front. He slips inside the front door easily as it is left unlocked. Elvis shuts it quietly and locks the deadbolt. The scent of you here was astonishing and made him grin in delight. There was another scent lingering in here though, a male’s mixed with alcohol. This made him annoyed but was more focused on finding you. He only heard your heartbeat in the apartment so he knew you two were alone again.

The squeak of the shower faucet directs his attention to the back of the unit. He carefully walks in that direction and you quickly walk across the hallways into the bedroom, never noticing Elvis there. He continues to walk slowly to your bedroom and he stops in his tracks when he hears you grunt frustratedly. He’s confused by your sudden outburst and wants to see what you’re doing.

He carefully peeks into the room and finds you on the side of the bed, the towel draped off of your body, and sitting there completely naked. He presses his lips together to not let out the moan he wants to let out. You were stunning, just as he had thought and he saw how your body ached with need. He watches as your fingers carefully slide down and find your aching bud. You take a sharp breath in as you discover how sensitive it is.

Rubbing it in slow circles, you feel so much relief, so much pleasure instantly that you’re pretty sure it’s not going to take you very long until you come undone. The amount of slick that came out of you was embarrassing but you didn’t care, you kept focusing on yourself. He hears how much wetness has gathered in between your legs and how you easily rub your slender fingers there, making you come apart.

Your hips involuntarily grind into your fingers and a louder airy moan comes out of you. Your index and middle finger glide through your sopping folds and moan more as you rub them on your clit, sending another shock in your body.

“Oh god,” you moan breathlessly, putting more pressure on your bud. 

Oh God, yes, he thinks, watching in awe. He starts to feel his cock grow hard again, wanting you unabashedly. He puts his hand in his pocket and rubs his warm length again. Watching you get off was so hot to him. He knew it was bad he was invading your privacy but god he could watch you for hours like this. Your heartbeat began to rise and by the look on your face, you were close to coming apart. 

You let your head fall back and squeeze your eyes closed, working yourself up to orgasm. He continued to rub his shaft trying not to make a sound watching you. 

“Ohmygod,” you moan out, “Oh my god E-Elvis,” you hiss and you gasp at what just came out of your mouth so easily. You sit there shaking, feeling the aftershocks of your orgasm reel through your body.

Elvis stops, looking wide-eyed at you. The way you moaned his name was heaven-sent and made him want to fuck you like never before. He was in just as much of shock as you were. He would have never thought that you would moan his name like that especially when you were pleasuring yourself. 

You sit there breathless on the bed and feel something staring at you. You snap your head in the direction of the door and a dark shadow moves in the corner of your eye. There’s nothing there but a huge chill runs down your body and your breathing continues to grow heavy. You were being paranoid and the shame and guilt ran through you. 

Elvis quickly ran to the living room so you wouldn’t see him. He could not believe what he heard and witnessed. The sound of the bedroom door closing followed by the switch of the lock made him want to get back to you. But it was probably best to leave you to have some peace. Today was a whirlwind even for him. He couldn’t wait to see you tomorrow and quickly went back to the Hilton.

*

The next day came and the clock hit three o'clock. But he wouldn’t call you up to the penthouse. Elvis also needed time to think. He needed to control himself so he wouldn’t hurt you. He took out the shards of glass that had your blood on it and would set it in front of himself, trying to withstand the want to taste it. He tried to get stronger in that sense for your safety. If he couldn’t do this, maybe he shouldn’t be around you anymore. He succeeded mostly when he was doing this little experimentation. His fangs would descend almost every time but by the time the end of the week came, he managed to hold back and have the utmost amount of strength.

But that wouldn’t stop him from checking in on you at night and watching you sleep. You were so peaceful laying there and he liked hearing your slow, soft breathing. He caught you a few times saying his name in your sleep and it made him so happy. He had to get stronger and get you back to the suite. 

On that Friday, he thought he was ready to call you back up to the penthouse but he had a sudden lapse of judgment and his eyes turned into the terrifying crimson orbs when he smelled your blood. He was so frustrated with himself, he thought he could be good and control himself but the beast inside him always won.

“Tell her not to come. I can’t do it,” he tells Jerry frustratedly. Jerry leaves the room quietly and does as he’s told. Elvis hears him make the phone call to housekeeping and he sits there frustrated with his head in his hands. Suddenly, Jerry pops back into the room frantically.

“She uhh.. she hung up on me,” he says in shock.

“She what?” He hisses.

“She hung up on me and the elevator is coming up here now,” he hisses.

Elvis stands up and growls, “fuck I’m not ready,” he grunts.

Jerry leaves the room again and the ding of the elevator sends chills through Elvis.

You come to the double doors with fumes radiating off of you as you are ready to give Elvis a piece of your mind…

*

Now

You stare motionless at Elvis, unable to say anything after everything he just described to you. You feel as though the whole world is going to come crashing down on you. Not only was Elvis a vampire, he craved your blood. So much that he barely had enough control to be around you.

So much more made sense now. The way he acted on his first day with you. It wasn’t that he hated you, he was starving for you. Letting his need for blood overshadow any rational thinking he had left in him. It scared you, how much he wanted you. It was the dark creature that resided within him that overtook his mind and made him an animal. The draw you had to him also scared you. This was all a mess. An engaged woman should have never been acting like that but you did and now your life will never be the same.

“So now you know, everything I was thinking that first week of seeing you. How you turned my entire world upside down and there’s nothing else I think about but you.” He states.

You stay silent, looking at his beautiful face that has so much hurt in it. You fidget with your clothes and wish this was all just a dream. 

“I don’t know what to say…” you mumble.  “You compelled Daniel I assume?” You ask. 

He nods his head, “yes. I shouldn’t have but he wasn’t going to go away,” he says with annoyance in his voice. 

“And you watch me… sleep?” You say with a shiver running down your back. 

He stands up to sit next to you on the same couch. You can’t help but recoil from him, so unsure of what he might do now. He picks up your hand and stills you, looking into your eyes intensely. 

“I understand if you never want to be around me again or ever do anything physical with me, but you deserve to know the whole truth. I’m sorry I’ve lied to you so much but it was for your safety. I’m trying to be better I promise you,” he pleads. 

“Elvis this is just so much for one day. I don’t know how to feel,” you admit. 

“I understand baby, I do. But I need you to know one thing; I’ll never stop wanting you. I need you. You’re all I need and more and the way my body feels for you is something that I can’t control.” He says frustratedly. 

You pull your hand away and get up from the couch, needing to put some space in between you two. 

“I need a second to think you’re so suffocating you know that?!,” you rasp, your nerves getting the best do you. 

“Please just, give me some time alone.”

He has so much betrayal in his eyes but he stands up slowly and quietly agrees. 

“I’ll be here… if you need anything,” he says solemnly. 

You rush to the spare bedroom and lock the door behind you. Like that really mattered. 

Elvis was a vampire. He craved you like nothing else on this planet and it scared you. He was never going away. He was going to find you no matter where you went. 

And secretly, way deep down, you liked it. 

Tagging:

@powerofelvis @burninlovebutler @neptuneismysister @velvetelvis @ccab @presleyenterprise @elvispresleyxoxo @loving-elvis

@prompted-wordsmith @sillybookmarks @dkayfixates @rosepresley @ellie-24 @rktismylife-blog @myradiaz @lookingforrainbows @elvispresleygf @tacozebra051 @thatbanditqueen

@18lkpeters @flwrs4aust @emma181873 @austinswhitewolf @eliseinmemphis @everythingelvispresley @chasingwildflowers @idontwanttoputanything @ohjustpeachy @elvisalltheway101 @austinsmutler @kingdomforapony @generoustreemystic @kendralavon7 @lettersfromvenus @claire-elvisgirl

@ashtag6887 @burnthheparaphilia @richardslady121 @jaqueline19997

@returntopresley @iloveelvis @rjmartin11 @that-hotdog @louisejoy86 @misspresley @cattcb @annapresley8

[nonconstories]

Someone pissed me off a couple of days ago

So! Below are several links to programs and foundations that promote adult literacy! Hundreds of millions of adults world wide were failed by their education system and now must fend for themselves while trying to read contracts and hospital bills and infographics from the CDC. But they don't have to be alone, and it is never too late to learn!

ProLiteracy: A network of educators, researchers, and advocates which provides research reports, learning materials, and other support to adult education programs. They assist with connecting volunteers to local programs and provide guidance and support to community leaders trying to use their programs' findings to advocate for social and political change.

Adult Literacy League: An adult education program in Central Florida, which aims to provide students with one on one attention to foster growth and confidence. It also offers English Second Language courses and job skills training, and each new student receives a comprehensive assessment to determine the best plan for them.

Saint Vincent and Sarah Fisher Center's Foundational Skills Program: A 100% free adult education program aimed at adults reading below a fifth grade level. It operates year round and is either in person or remote, and they now have a GED testing center that is open to students and the public alike.

Washtenaw Literacy: A free network of trained tutors for adults in Washtenaw County, Michigan.

Adult Learning Program (Las Vegas/Clark County): Free education classes to those lacking a high school diploma, those seeking to learn ESL, and adults who read below an eighth grade level. Also assists in students' search for gainful employment. Nevada got so fucked by COVID and the education/literacy numbers in the South West are grim. Please help these guys.

Hawaii Literacy: In addition to helping adult residents of Hawaii Island learn to read and write AND bridging the education gap in Hawaii's underserved children, they offer computer literacy classes, ESL classes, and a bookmobile. 1 in 6 Hawaiian adults struggle to read and write.

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

is taylor scared of what might happen if she supports palestine or does she just not care? because i can't think of any other reason for her silence than those two.

but i don't get what there is to be scared of! an artist of her stature won't be hurt even if all her sponsors cut ties as a result of her speaking out. she's a billionaire and the biggest artist in the world, for god's sake.

so i really don't get it! i don't want to believe she doesn't care, but every single passing second of her silence makes me more and more upset.

as someone who once called herself "miss americana", she should have already been raising awareness.

we need to keep this up. we need to keep urging her to raise awareness. i just wish there was some way for swifties to tell her what she should do to her face, in real life.

“Is she scared or does she simply not care?”

When I think about these questions, I refer to her history.

The first time she broke her silence to stand for what’s right was in 2019. Famously, this was a period of time when she was sinking into irrelevance. When her fans talk about the Lover era, they say it was like Taylor was “one flop away from a Katy Perry Las Vegas residency”.

It makes sense that she broke her silence at a time when she didn’t have much to lose and in fact, needed a rebrand to stay relevant.

Now, she’s at the peak of her career and no longer needs to have positive marketing from activism. In fact, she benefits from being silent. She profits off of seeming like she appeals to everyone.

When we think about why Taylor doesn’t speak out, it’s useful to analyse her past patterns of behaviour.

Taylor loves money and she loves fame. She has even admitted to being a narcissist.

It makes sense that she doesn’t care about children being burned alive. As long as it doesn’t effect her bottom line, she will stay silent.

[whatstruthgottodowithit]

It Hurts Me

Fandom: Elvis Presley, American Actor RPF, 

Pairing: Jerry Schilling x Reader, Elvis Presley x Reader

Characters: Jerry Schilling, Reader, You, Elvis Presley, Joe Esposito

Rating: Mature

Word Count: 7849

Summary: It hurts me to see him treat you, the way that he does.

Tags/Warnings: Cheating, Established Relationship, Reader Has A Name, Second Person POV, Marriage, Implied Cheating, Kissing, Sex, Hurt, Angst, Song Fic, Betrayal, Guilt,

Notes:  I just have this thing for Jerry Schilling k?

ELVIS MASTERLIST // SONG LINK // HALLOWEEN CHALLENGE

Thunk.

As the refrigerator door swung shut Jerry sighed, already missing the cool breeze it had been circulating around his lower half as he’d held it open. He’d forgotten how hot it could get out here, the heat of the desert not staved off by the cooling ocean breeze like it was Los Angeles and given that he’d been based there for the past few months he’d gotten used to the climate. In fact, he’d gotten used to everything in L.A. He liked working through the week and having the weekends to himself. He liked going on a morning run or hanging out at the beach. He liked the normalcy of it all. It wasn’t that Palm Springs didn’t have its perks of course, actually, having missed this run in Vegas had made him feel a tad left out, it was just that he’d gotten used to the little life he had going.

Still, when Elvis had called him yesterday evening and asked him to meet him and the guys in Palm Springs for a last hoorah after finishing another successful residency he couldn't refuse and had even begged his boss to let him leave early and come in late on Monday morning which fortunately he’d agreed to. Which is how he’d ended up standing in the kitchen of Elvis’ Palm Springs home trying to will the sweat that had gathered around his neck away with the touch of an ice-cold can of beer. He figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a drink now considering most of the guys would probably have started to ease into the weekend the minute they climbed on the plane but still it felt awkward to start the party by himself. Coming from LA instead of Vegas had meant that he had been the first one to arrive so he was happy to hear the sounds of someone coming through from the garage even if it didn’t sound rowdy enough to be his friends.

He wondered who it could be, waiting for the culprit to work their way through the house towards the kitchen, and he was surprised when you rounded the door looking surprised to find him standing there, beer in hand.

‘Oh hey,’ you said scanning around to see that he was in fact on his own.

‘Hey,’ he replied.

‘Is it just you?’ you asked coming forward into the room.

‘Yeah, drove up this afternoon,’ Jerry said taking a sip.

‘Oh, yeah of course,’ you mumbled suddenly remembering he wasn’t part of the touring group anymore. You didn’t know how you’d forgotten though; Elvis had reminded you enough times, constantly explaining how he was happy for his friend but still felt a tad abandoned he had chosen to go down his own path. As Jerry explained they’d be arriving any time, moving to get you a drink from the fridge without asking, you watched him. His hair was a shade or two lighter, sun-washed, and his skin had a healthy glow to it – the kind that came when you weren’t locked away in a studio, hotel or movie set. He looked good.

‘So, I didn’t know you were comin’,’ he said as he handed you a soda which you took with a thankful smile.

‘Well it was a last-minute thing,’ you shrugged, knowing that this would appease him. Everything your husband did seemed to be last minute so it wouldn’t surprise him if Elvis had called you up and asked you to hop on a plane ASAP. Yet that wasn’t what had happened. With his shows ending in Vegas, you’d anticipated a call anytime but the one that had come hadn’t been one to invite you to join him. It had been one that told you your reunion would only occur next week despite already having spent eight weeks apart. It had crushed you and so you had arranged a flight to Palm Springs knowing that’s where he would be headed.

‘Well the more the merrier,’ Jerry smiled though it disappeared as he heard his name called somewhere in the house.

‘Jer ya here?!’ you heard Elvis’ dulcet tones yell out coming ever closer as he headed towards Jerry’s response.

‘In here,’ Jerry replied in something just lower than a shout.

‘Thought I saw your car in the driveway,’ Elvis said as he appeared in the doorway though his face fell as he noticed you standing there, ‘Cassie?’

‘Hey,’ you said putting your soda down and moving over to him quickly, hoping that if you threw yourself into his arms it would override his senses long enough he wouldn’t get mad at you for disobeying him.

‘Hey,’ he mumbled as your lips met his, your arms wrapping around his neck as he held you to him on muscle memory alone. Though as he pulled back he still looked confused muttering, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I came to see you,’ you said cheerily hoping he’d join your spirits.

‘I thought we were seeing each other Monday?’ he said. It was posed like a question but the tone that laced it was one of accusation.

‘I know but I was flying this way anyway and you were done in Vegas,’ you said airily, running your fingers along his sideburns and down his cheek. You knew you were playing a dangerous game, that going against what he said often didn’t end up going the way you wanted it, but you remained hopeful your campaign would soften him so you added, ‘It's been eight weeks…don’t you want to see me?’

‘Of course I do,’ Elvis replied tightly as his eyes flicked towards where Jerry was standing. Jerry dropped his gaze, suddenly interested in his beer can more than what was going on in front of him, ‘it’s just I planned for us to see each other on Monday. I promised the guys a weekend…y’know just guys.’

‘Oh,’ you said quietly. You had hoped that showing up here would’ve meant he’d be forced to keep you around but your plan had backfired and now he was going to rake you over the hot coals in front of his friend making you feel like the fool you were.

‘It’s just that they’ve worked hard ya know? They deserve to let some steam off before we go back to normal,’ Elvis said his thumb rubbing reassuring circles against your back though they did nothing to comfort you and nothing to make you sound any less pathetic as you mumbled, ‘I wouldn’t be in the way.’

‘And what about the other wives? They’ve all been apart too,’ Elvis reasoned moving to brush your hair from your face, an act that would force you to look him in the eye, any resolve or defiance crumbling as he gave you his most crafted sympathetic look. One that meant you were still in the shit but you weren’t going to feel as though it was his fault.

‘Right,’ you agreed cursing yourself for how easily it worked. After all, he had been straight with you and you’d chosen to run the risk of coming anyway.

‘If it was up to me I’d have you stay,’ he said pressing a kiss to your forehead.

‘No I get it,’ you said, ‘it’s fine.’

‘When I get back home on Monday we can do whatever you want okay? Just me and you how’s that sound?’ he asked watching you expectantly as you nodded. Once he could see he was off the hook he leant down, capturing your lips once again as he held your face with each of his large hands but when you pulled back you could feel tears stinging in your eyes so you pulled away from him, mumbling something about needing to freshen up to which he agreed, telling you he’d ask Joe to get some flights sorted as soon as possible.

You didn’t say anything and instead fled to the safety of the house and he watched you go making sure you were well out of the way before he sighed and rested back against the counter. Jerry remained silent, knowing that it was better to wait for him to give the temperature of the room before he dove in.

‘What the hell was she thinkin’,’ Elvis sighed.

‘What?’ Jerry said.

‘Comin’ here,’ Elvis said as if it was self-explanatory.

‘Guess she missed you,’ Jerry mused.

‘Oh don’t you start,’ Elvis said rolling his eyes. Jerry knew it was probably foolish to bait him like this, but he had been watching how your face fell the moment he had let you down even if he had done it gently. And he didn’t know if it was the fact he’d been out of the group for a while, looking at their antics from the outside in, but it didn’t seem fair. After all, he knew what it was like to miss Elvis, even as just a friend, he didn’t blame you for not wanting to be left out.

‘I’m just sayin’ it could be worse,’ Jerry shrugged, ‘she could’ve forgotten who you were.’

‘Like you you mean?’ Elvis said. It was an unnecessary barb and it didn’t serve any other purpose than making Jerry’s jaw tighten.

‘I’m here aren’t I?’ Jerry challenged.

‘Yeah, and you ain’t been out to Vegas once the whole time we’ve been there. What could your boss not spare ya? You CEO now or sumthin’?’ Elvis joked though it teetered on the edge of venomous.

‘Can’t be takin’ liberties,’ Jerry joked though it was terser than intended. He knew Elvis hadn’t taken his news about his new job well but he had been understanding enough.

‘Straight and narrow huh?’ Elvis said raising his eyebrow. Jerry was going to respond, make some quip about how anything would be straighter than working for Elvis but it was caught short as Joe appeared, no doubt wondering where Elvis had got to.

‘Ah just the man,’ Elvis said straightening up, ‘I need a favour.’

‘Sure thing,’ Joe agreed.

‘I need you to book a flight to LA for me,’ he said.

‘How come?’ Joe asked just as you reappeared in the doorway. He looked at you and then Elvis, putting everything together himself without help, ‘Uh sure two minutes.’

‘You okay?’ Elvis asked grabbing your hand and pulling you into him stopping you from lingering. It seemed that his reluctance had melted away though you wondered if that was because he was sure he wouldn’t have to deal with you for long.

‘Fine,’ you lied.

‘Joe’s just checkin’ on flights for ya,’ Elvis said pressing a kiss into your temple earning a weak smile from you in return. Jerry watched on, saying nothing, though he could see the hurt lingering behind your eyes. He was only torn away from looking at you when Joe reappeared and said, ‘uh slight problem.’

‘What is it?’ Elvis said straightening up.

‘No flights to LA. They’re all booked up,’ Joe said glancing irately at you as if it was your fault he had to be the bearer of bad news.

‘None?’ Elvis asked.

‘Might be a cancellation but it’ll mean hanging around just in case,’ Joe said.

‘Shit,’ Elvis grumbled, ‘what are we gonna do?’

He seemed to be thinking and you watched feeling your stomach churn. There was a simple solution, you stay here with him like any normal couple would do after eight weeks apart, but no he was racking his brains trying to think of how to get rid of you. It made sorrow wash through you.

‘I’ll take her,’ Jerry said making all eyes snap towards him and that sadness inside you turn to nerves.

‘What?’ Elvis asked and for a moment Jerry wondered why he’d said it at all. Maybe it was the irritation of Elvis treating anyone who disobeyed him as a second-class citizen. Maybe it was just because you looked broken – holding it together whilst he was present.

‘I’ll take her,’ he reiterated before he added with a shrug, ‘who knows how long it’ll be before she gets a flight.’

‘It’s alright,’ you mumbled, ‘I can wait at the airport.’

‘Yeah I’m sure there’ll be a cancellation at some point,’ Joe reasoned.

‘It’s fine,’ Jerry said placing his can down on the counter.

‘It’s like a four-hour round trip,’ Elvis said. You were watching him closely, watching as his eyes narrowed at his friend’s generosity. You didn’t know why. After all if he wanted you gone you didn’t see why he wouldn’t be jumping at the idea of getting rid of you sooner rather than later.

‘I don’t mind besides once I’m on a decent stretch of highway I’ll make the time up I bet,’ Jerry replied. At that Elvis relaxed and you realised his reluctance wasn’t about you at all. It was that Jerry was once again willing to miss out on the action. To put him second.

That made your stomach churn once more. After that you barely registered what was happening. There was a brief interlude of Elvis giving his thanks to his friend and then promises that were meant to reassure you though they didn’t. Nothing did. Not the way he kissed you goodbye. Not the squeeze he gave your hand as he helped you into Jerry’s car. Not the way he stopped to wave you goodbye before he headed back into the house.

Nothing quelled that feeling of foolishness inside you. You were a fool. A fool to let him do as he pleased. A fool to forgive and forget every time that it happened. A fool to cling to the idea that maybe, just maybe, he’d put you first.

‘You can let it out if you want,’ Jerry said eventually snapping you from your thoughts though when you looked up you were now on a sparse span of desert signalling you had been driving for longer than you had anticipated. You looked towards him and found him watching you expectantly, barely having to glance at the road given it was straight and empty as far as the eye could see.

‘What?’ you asked irritably.

‘Call him out,’ he said as if it were obvious, ‘it’s alright. I understand.’

‘Why would I do that?’ you snapped which made him look back to the road, evidently not prepared for your abrasiveness. If anything you didn’t understand it yourself. Elvis had hurt you and it would make sense for you to call him for it. In fact, out of all the boys Jerry was probably one of the ones to do it in front of as he was not liable to go running straight to him.

‘Well, aren’t you pissed? I mean you’ve come all this way and he’s kicked you to the curb-'

‘He has not kicked me to the curb,’ you said angrily making him shrink back in his seat though he did glance at you before looking back at the stretch of concrete in front of him.

‘Okay,’ he mumbled, ‘sorry.’

‘Why have you got something to say?’ you asked as your irritation bubbled.

‘No,’ Jerry said. He knew he should’ve kept well alone. He’d had dipped his toe in the water hoping to find something amiable to swim in, somewhere he could air his own frustrations about his friend with someone feeling just as annoyed, but he had found it to be bitterly cold and yet he couldn’t stop himself from saying, ‘it’s just…even for his track record this is pretty shitty.’

‘His track record?’ you asked unable to fathom why you were acting as though your husband's indiscretions were coming as a shock to you.

‘Oh come on Cassie are you gonna pretend you think all his behaviour is spectacular?’ he said feeling his own frustration mounting as you scowled at him.

‘I never said that,’ you muttered looking out of the window.

‘I’m just sayin' me and the guys-' he started but that was enough to snap your head back towards him as you replied, ‘Oh so you all talk about me is that it?’

‘No, of course not,’ he sighed.

‘So come on what do you say?’ you said ignoring his protests.

‘It’s not like that,’ he said glancing at you before he continued, ‘all I’m saying is there are some times when I don’t understand why you put up with it.’

‘So I’m an idiot?’ you said. You knew were being unreasonable now but your irritation had bubbled over and instead of spilling out on yourself or Elvis, whom you were truly mad at, it released onto the only person nearby.

‘No I didn’t mean it like that,’ Jerry said but you weren’t in the mood to listen.

‘Well, you shouldn’t mean anything because my relationship is of no concern to anyone but me and Elvis got it? What we do is up to us no one else okay?’ you said huffily, folding your arms across your chest as you looked away from him.

‘Fine, okay, sorry,’ he mumbled.

‘Yeah well just leave me alone,’ you snapped.

And with that the pair of you fell silent. You didn’t look at him, your eyes fixed on the towns and stretches of desert that passed outside your window though you could feel him glancing at you every so often. Eventually the silence must’ve become too much for him as you heard him fiddle with the radio, letting a country station play through the airwaves, doing nothing to cut the tension. You didn’t know why you had snapped at him. If anything he was your opportunity to speak about your hurt without being judged. And he had a point. Though you loved your husband you couldn’t deny the way he treated you didn’t always feel right. Of course when you were together it was wonderful but those days were becoming further apart – distance being put between the pair of you though never by your choice.

Whether it was a comfort to know that others had noticed it too you weren’t too sure. Not that it mattered. No one would ever question his motives and if it came down to it you doubted anyone would side in your corner if you challenged him. But then again how could you expect them to? You couldn’t even do it yourself. You loved him too much.

You hoped beyond hope that at every turn he’d make the right choice and when he didn’t you let him, convincing yourself it didn’t matter, it was justified. That’s why what Jerry had said had hurt so much. Not because you were mad at him but because he reminded you of just how pitiful you were. 

At that you calmed, glancing over to him for the first time in an age. He was looking straight out at the road, his fingers tapping along to the music though they faltered in rhythm as he looked your way and found you watching him. You smiled at him apologetically and he returned it before looking back to the road in front of him. Neither of you spoke but there the air was thinner as you drove on towards home.

✵✵✵

‘We’re here,’ Jerry said stirring you from the slumber you had fallen into as you passed through Pomona. It hadn't been a ridiculously long drive but given the flight, the fight and the disappointment you had packed into your day it wasn’t a surprise you had felt fatigued.

‘Thanks,’ you said as you sat up, noticing you were now in the driveway of your Beverley Hills home.

‘Isn’t anyone here?’ Jerry asked looking at the house in front of him only to find there were no lights on and given that it was dark now it resembled more of a silhouette against the lights of the valley.

‘I told them not to bother coming till Monday,’ you said sheepishly. It was your own fault for assuming all would go well and it should’ve been you who was embarrassed yet it didn’t stop Jerry from flushing and saying, ‘Right, yeah.’

He paused for a moment as did you, both of you wondering whether or not to address the elephant in the room or to let it go, bury it under the rug like most disagreements in your life. But as he looked at you barely lit from the far away street lamps he couldn’t help but want to apologise. Even if it wasn’t just him you deserved an apology from.

‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten involved it’s nothing to do with me or anyone else,’ he said.

‘No it’s not,’ you agreed though you couldn’t blame them for it. If anything you were curious about it and though you knew it whatever answer he gave you would probably sting you asked him anyway, ‘Does everyone really talk about it?’

‘Nah it’s not like that,’ he said feeling guilty at the way your cheeks pinked up at the thought.

‘What is it like then?’ you asked. Jerry paused. He looked apprehensive, like a politician who had just been handed a career-ending question and was deciding the best way to phrase their response. It made you brace yourself.

‘Well I mean most of them don’t see an issue with it…I mean they’re doin’ similar things…,’ he said, making your chest tighten at the idea of what the boys could be up to, though you suspected you already knew. He registered your silence but he felt the need to continue anyway. He felt as though you needed at least one person to be honest with you tonight, ’but I guess it just hurts me to see you upset and cryin’ over him when he’s sittin' pretty in Palm Springs.’

Once he was no longer speaking silence descended on the two of you, thoughts swirling around your brain that you couldn’t put into order quickly enough to form a response. He hung on, fiddling with a small gash in the leather of the steering wheel as you watched him before you uttered a small, ‘wow.’

‘What?’ he asked. Of all the responses he had been expecting reverent awe wasn’t one of them. In fact, he was half expecting you to tear him a new one, even though you’d asked, and for you to storm off into the house leaving him to curse his honesty on the long drive back to the party.

‘I guess…I guess I’ve never heard anyone call him out like that before,’ you admitted truthfully. It wasn’t that Elvis couldn’t take criticism, it was just that it was never certain of how it was going to land and so over time people had stopped, preferring to take the easy way out. You supposed that was you too in some ways.

‘Yeah well I know what’s right and well, it ain’t right,’ Jerry said, shifting in his seat as if he had overstepped but he was an honest man and he wasn’t going to take something he meant back just because it was uncomfortable.

‘Well thanks for caring,’ you said with a gloomy smile.

‘Yeah, well,’ he said noncommittally.

It was odd to watch him and as you mulled over his words you felt yourself feeling odder still. He had been criticising Elvis but the more you thought about it the more it felt as well, more than that. As if it wasn’t Elvis he was bothered about, it was you. And with those thoughts swirling around your brain you found the words tripping off your tongue without you telling them to.

‘What did you mean,’ you said, his brows knitting together as you spoke, ‘when you said it hurts you.’

‘What?’ Jerry replied quietly, a barely visible tinge of pink christening his tanned face.

‘You said it hurts you…to see me upset,’ you said shifting in your seat so that you were watching him closely for any flicker of emotion that might tell you what he was thinking.

‘Did I?’ he said airily moving back from you, his fingers returning their assault on the leather of the steering wheel, picking at it nervously.

‘Yeah,’ you said firmly. It had been just a nonsensical thing, an innocent question asked, floated in the air expecting a simple answer in return but the way he was acting now made it come alive. It made that silly notion turn into all you could think of. Yet he wasn’t responding. He’d breathed life into your notions and then refused to engage with them, forcing you to put your hand on his, stopping him from fiddling with something unimportant and look towards you, despair in his eyes.

‘Cassie,’ he grumbled.

‘What?’ you asked unable to let it go, ‘I mean why do you care?’

‘We’re friends?’ he asked finally looking at you as you searched his face, unable to believe that was the reason.

‘So?’ you replied.

‘So what?’ he asked. He was getting nervous now, wondering why he’d even bothered to open his mouth. And if he was being honest he didn’t know why it hurt him. Why seeing you pretending to be okay, to put on a good show, made his heart ache. It always had but he’d pushed it aside, pretended because it wasn’t his place to get involved, but now he didn’t know how he could do that. Not when you were watching him, baiting him into saying something he might regret.

‘Does it hurt with the others?’ you asked.

‘What?’ he asked confused.

‘Joanie, Pat,’ you said, uttering your friend's names as if that would get him to be truthful. As if bringing them into the mix would get him to admit whatever he was holding back.

‘Just leave it okay?’ he sighed.

‘Do they hurt?’ you asked again though this time he pulled back moving to open his car door but you rushed forward, practically clambering over him so you could yank it shut again. Your ideas weren’t just waves idling lapping along the shore now. They were tsunamis, great floods that consumed every thought inside your brain, trying to cling to anything that might make you feel as though everything was still the same. Though from the look on his face when he pulled back you doubted it would be.

‘Cassie,’ he said practically begging for you to stop but you didn’t. You couldn’t.

‘Do they hurt?’ you asked again in a whisper. He closed his eyes, thinking for a moment before he said just as quietly, ‘No.’

‘So why me?’ you asked.

As his eyes met yours you could see it. Everything clicking into place. He cared about you, more than either of you had seemed to realise. In fact at that moment, as you thought about your husband enjoying himself without you as he had been for the last eight weeks, you thought about how he might be the only one that did. And before you could stop yourself, before you could tell your body not to you found yourself moving forward, your lips meeting his in a passionate kiss. He didn’t respond at first, his body took by surprise but then you found his lips moving against yours as his hand moved to your face, caressing the soft skin there. After a moment he came to his senses, pulling back and leaving you breathless.

You watched him, the pair of you just as confused and stunned as one another, but then you found yourself moving back in. You didn’t want to think of anything else. You didn’t want to think about Elvis, about the hurt and anguish he put you through, how he was probably miles away doing the same thing. You wanted to feel loved, cared about, the way Jerry had spoken of you. You wanted him to show it, to have someone happy to see you for once.

As you kissed you found your hands moving to the buttons on his shirt, working quickly as your mouth followed down the path of flesh they were leaving in their wake. Jerry groaned as your mouth suckled on a spot near the base of his neck, your hand ghosting down his front and making his dick twitch in response. Yet as you giggled, that obscenely cute giggle, the one he’d heard countless times before whenever Elvis had said something to make you laugh he was pulled from the moment.

‘We can’t,’ he mumbled as he tried to keep himself level-headed, ‘we shouldn’t. He’s my best friend, oh fuck.’

Though you could hear his mumblings, his pleas for you to feel as guilty as he was, but you couldn’t force yourself to. You needed this, him, in order to convince yourself you were cared about. That someone loved you, if only for a night. And it was more than that. You needed him to prove you weren’t pathetic. That you weren’t the fool everyone thought you were.

‘We shouldn’t,’ he said, ‘I mean we can’t right?’

‘Jer,’ you said finally pulling back to look at him, his blue eyes large and frantic as he looked down on you. It was ironic that you were desperate not to feel pathetic given that you couldn’t make your voice sound like anything but a plea, ‘Please?’

✵✵✵

You wondered how you’d got here. How your day had gone from hopping on a plane to surprise your husband had somehow ended up with you lying here, nestled in his best friend’s arms, listening to the steady thump of his heartbeat under your ear as he slept. How had it happened? How had your life become so bent of shape that you felt driven into another man's arms? You also wondered how it didn’t feel entirely horrible. How you didn’t want to peel yourself away, scrub the night from your skin and beg Jerry to pretend it never happened. And as he stirred, noting you in his arms with a sleepy grin he found he didn’t want to do that either.

You lay there, watching as he pushed sleep from his eyes before his gaze fell on you, the worry of last night not present as he mumbled, ‘Morning.’

‘Morning,’ you said, unable to hate how relaxed your voice was.

‘You been up a while?’ he yawned.

‘Not too long,’ you said, allowing your fingers to dance lazily along his chest before he moved his hand to yours. Before you could say anything further though the pair of you were startled as the beside phone rang, cutting through your sleepy haze and bringing you back to a harsher reality as you scrambled across him to pick it up as if the phone itself had caught you.

‘Hello?’ you said a touch breathless from the shock and exertion you’d forced upon yourself in the mere moments it had taken you to answer.

‘Cass?’ Elvis’ voice rang out clear as a bell into your ear causing the first wave of guilt you’d felt that morning to wash over you. A wave that grew stronger as you looked at Jerry, finding him watching you closely as you said, ‘E? What are you calling for?’

‘Why are you expecting someone else?’ he chuckled making you close your eyes unable to look at Jerry who’d now gotten all the details of the mystery caller and was watching you uncertainly.

‘Course not,’ you said injecting as much faux joviality into your voice as possible. Something that made Elvis’ reply sound curious as he said, ‘Something the matter?’

‘No, why?’ you said attempting to make it flow more naturally as you said, ‘What’s up?’

‘Nuthin’, just checking you got back alright,’ he said making that guilt flood you once more.

‘Oh yeah fine,’ you replied.

‘Good, good,’ he said clearing his throat in the way that told you he had more to say, he was just contemplating how to say it, ‘uh, you ain’t seen Jer have you?’

‘Jer?’ you asked glancing at the man in question, still pinned beneath you, his bare skin on yours.

‘Yeah, he uh, he didn’t come back last night. I’m worried,’ he said. And just as quickly as the guilt had come to you, rushing in like a tide, it ebbed out leaving your body with only irritation and anger in its wake. This wasn’t about you. He hadn’t called to make sure you were okay, to ensure that after kicking you out last night you’d made it home. No, he was worried about Jerry. About the fact his little boy's club had been disbanded prematurely. Jerry seemed to notice the change in your demeanour as you pulled back, sitting up in the bed as you said, ‘Oh, uh, yeah he’s here. His car broke down about a half hour after he left so he came back. I told him he could crash here and have it looked at this morning.’

‘Ah okay well uh tell him I’ll see him later,’ Elvis said, unable to hear the lies for what they were as they fell effortlessly out of your mouth. It surprised you that after so long together he didn’t know you well enough to know when you weren’t being honest with him. Though you supposed he never took the time to look close enough to figure it out. Or that unlike you he hadn't had enough reference material to realise when the other was spinning a web.

‘Will do,’ you said politely though you could feel the sneer on your face as you did.

‘Okay, bye honey,’ he replied.

‘Bye,’ you said, not bothering with niceties as you moved to slam the phone back to where it was.

Jerry, who had remained quiet throughout, sat up watching you closely as he said, ‘You alright?’

‘Fine,’ you said, ‘breakfast?’

And without waiting for him you scrambled up off the bed, grabbing the robe that was hanging off the back of the door as you walked out of the room and towards the kitchen. Jerry was up in a flash to follow you, scrambling to grab any piece of clothing to cover himself as he headed down the path you had gone. Though when got in there he stopped, watching you as you moved around the kitchen, whatever had been said on the other end of the phone evidently ripping whatever happy little moment well and truly away.

It was odd. When he had awoken this morning, the memories of last night flooding back to him, he had expected you to pull right away or more to the point he had expected himself to pull away. For his brain to tell him he was an idiot, that not only would Elvis tear him limb from limb whatever was left would be gnawed away by his own guilt. Yet it hadn't happened. In fact, he hadn't felt any of that until he’d watched your face change, not to guilt but to anger. That anger had stirred the same feeling in him that your sadness had.

‘You okay?’ he asked knowing the response but asking anyway.

‘Peachy,’ you said sarcastically.

‘Cassie,’ he said but you ignored him, pulling pans and bowls from the cupboard and putting them on the counter as you whittered on.

‘Do you want breakfast? I don’t know what supplies we’ve got in but I can make something if you want. You’ll need something in you before you go,’ you said as the pan you had been holding clunked loudly against the tile counter. However Jerry wasn’t paying attention to that but rather your words.

‘You want me to go?’ was all he could ask but it was enough to get you to stop. Your clenched jaw loosened as you looked at him, whatever anger you had inside you suddenly realising it was misplaced.

‘I just assumed,’ you said quietly as he moved towards you, moving behind you as his hands ghosted down yours, his lips near the shell of your ear.

‘Do you want me to go?’ he asked, his hands lingering by your hips as if waiting for the okay. If he didn’t touch you, if he let his hands hover, never touching down then the pair of you would have an out. Plausible deniability.

Yet you didn’t want that. You didn’t want him to go, like last night you wanted him to hold you, to love you, and so you shook your head. Jerry breathed a sigh of relief, his arms wrapping around you as his lips kissed just below your ear, allowing you to lean back into him for comfort. As you reached a hand up to hold his head in place, your fingers running through his long locks he mumbled, ‘I don’t want to go either just for the record.’

‘You’re sure?’ you asked, knowing that if he pulled back now it would crush you.

‘Hundred per cent.’

After breakfast followed by a quick call to Palm Springs brushing Elvis off with the façade of car trouble, the pair of you spent a lazy day together. There was no rush to any of it, no expectation to do anything except be. It was odd to you, the simplicity of it all. When you thought of the word affair all that came to mind was sordid secrets, debauched rendezvous before returning to the monotony of normal life. And yet there was none of that.

But it was still everything you needed; he was what you needed.

He made you feel better, less pathetic, loved.

Yet as you lay in his arms, watching his peaceful face as he slept it made you feel sad. He had given you everything you needed and yet you couldn’t love him, not really. At that thought you felt sadness wash over you and you made yourself climb out of bed, should you need to cry once more. He stirred as you left him, waiting patiently until you returned though when you did you didn’t give him a chance to speak.

Instead you kissed him, climbing onto him until your hips were aligned, causing his blood to run south. There was no talking as you made out, you coaxing him out of his boxers and to attention until he was lined up with your entrance. He was still sleepy, if he was being honest he was still trying to fathom how this was the second day in a row he’d woke up in the same bed as his best friend’s wife, yet as you lowered yourself down onto him, enveloping him with your heat he came to. Yet it wasn’t the feel of you that snapped him out of it, it was the look on your face. A look that told him this wasn’t the start of something, this was you saying goodbye.

He didn’t know how long you stayed there for, savouring every minute of it until you finally worked yourselves to the edge, before you collapsed onto the bed beside him spent and exhausted. Yet as he held you, his mind whirring in post-orgasmic clarity he found himself saying words he’d never thought he’d utter.

‘You could you know,’ he said making you move your head just enough to signal you were listening but not so much that he could see your face, ‘leave him I mean…if you wanted to.’

You were quiet for a moment, the words lingering in the air above you as he waited for a response. He knew it was foolish. He knew, in his heart of hearts, he knew that you had already made up your mind. That so long as Elvis kept giving you just enough you would carry on, you’d keep letting the hurt in.

‘It’s not that simple,’ you said, your voice so quiet it resembled a whisper.

‘I know it wouldn’t be easy but you could,’ he said. He knew it wasn’t his place. He knew that even with you lying in his arms he had no right to ask that of you but he needed to know. He needed to know for his own sake that you knew you could. That you could choose to walk away.

‘So why haven’t you?’ you asked pushing yourself up until you were looking at him, ‘why haven’t you walked away? I mean you’ve tried. So many times and yet one phone call and you’re back. Whatever he needs you’re there. So don’t pretend it’s that easy.’

‘Maybe I never had anything worth getting out for before,’ he countered, his fingers sweeping along your face.

‘Jer,’ you said sadly.

‘I know, I know,’ he said with a sad smile as you moved to nestle yourself into him, feeling tears building inside you.

He knew it wasn’t that simple, you both did, and yet you couldn’t help but wish it wasn’t. You couldn’t help but wish that this was some emblazoned affair, one where the pair of you fell madly in love with one another and just had to break away in order to be together. Maybe that would’ve been better than both of you just needing someone to see you. Not for what you could be or what you could provide but for you.

‘It’s nice you know,’ he said quietly after a moment.

‘What?’ you asked as your brows knit together as you struggled to find the context of whatever he was jabbering on about.

‘My apartment. Smaller than you’re used to of course and the pipes rattle in the winter but it’s cosy,’ he said. As his hand rubbed soothing circles on your back you felt those tears sting once more not because you were sad but because for the first time in forever someone realised you might be.

‘Bet it needs a woman’s touch,’ you sniffled causing a chuckle to rumble against your ear.

‘Definitely,’ he agreed, ‘and it’s only a stone's throw away from the beach.’

‘Could spend every weekend there,’ you murmured.

‘Mmm, evenings too. Don’t worry I’d make sure I was home in time for dinner. Probably get canned for rushing to leave,’ he said.

‘I’d have to dust off my cooking skills, they’re rusty,’ you giggled.

‘Honey I’d make whatever ya gave me,’ he said.

‘Hmm,’ you mused, ‘bet you’d always call too. If you were gonna be late home, never leave me hanging.’

‘Of course not,’ he promised.

Again you fell quiet though you didn’t know if it was because of the fact the ideas floated around actually sounded good or because the simplest things, the common courtesies he mentioned, were now absent from your everyday life. Hell, you couldn’t even make your husband want to see you after eight damn weeks apart. Which is why as mundane as these ideas were they were a fantasy, a nice one, but a fantasy all the same.

‘It sounds nice,’ you said after a moment.

‘It does, doesn’t it,’ he agreed.

‘I’m sorry,’ you whispered wishing you could buy into the fantasy. Wishing that you could allow yourself to let go.

‘Don’t be,’ he said, ‘I get it…you’re right. I mean I can't exactly judge you, none of us can, not when we don’t even have the strength to get out ourselves.’

‘We still have till tomorrow,’ you said.

‘You’re right,’ he said pressing a kiss to the top of your head, ‘I guess that’s better than nothing.’

✵✵✵

It was an odd feeling, to have something knowing that at some point you’d inevitably have to let it go. To know that by the end of the day whatever had transpired would be long forgotten, avoided at all costs, and yet you’d know how it felt – to be seen, to be recognised, to be loved.

That was how it felt when Jerry stepped out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his waist and a glint in his eye as he clocked you standing by the bathroom counter brushing your teeth. That was how it felt when he moved in behind you, his lips on your neck if only for a moment before he moved past you into the bedroom to get changed.

You allowed him to, trying to decide whether or not to follow him but before you could make the decision you heard the sounds of someone in the house. You crept out of the bathroom, making your way down the hall ready to tell the staff they were still not needed, not until tomorrow.

And yet when you got to the living room it wasn’t the staff you found. It was Elvis.

‘Hey,’ he said his face breaking into a smile as he saw you, coming towards you so he could place a kiss on your lips. They moved against his stiffly making you unable to arrange your thoughts together to question him any further than, ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Missed ya,’ he shrugged, ‘missed this.’

‘El,’ you breathed feeling guilt shroud you at the same time his arms did. Even more so as he mistook your guilty expression for one of concern for the boys who were now moving into the house, various suitcases and bags in tow.

‘Oh, they don’t care. If anything we were probably getting on each other's nerves after eight weeks,’ he said pressing another kiss to your lips. One that was cut short as you heard Jerry call your name.

As you looked towards where his voice was coming from he appeared, surprise on his face that quickly turned to a faux smile as he said, ‘Oh hey EP.’

‘Hey man,’ Elvis smiled.

‘What are you guys doing here?’ he asked, his eyes flitting to you in a fleeting glance before they fixated on Elvis, trying to ignore the way you were watching him.

‘Cassie was right. We’ve spent weeks in each other’s pocket so I thought I’d give them their release papers,’ Elvis chuckled earning a forced laugh from both of you that he didn’t seem to note was disingenuous as he said, ‘Everything alright with your car?’

‘What?’ Jerry said before his brain kicked into gear and he said, ‘Oh yeah, it uh, needed a part they couldn’t get till this afternoon. Figured there was no point drivin’ up there after.’

‘Nah probably not,’ Elvis agreed, letting you go only a little so that you were still tucked into his side as he asked, ‘She kept you entertained?’

‘Course,’ Jerry said, a tight smile on his face that Elvis didn’t clock.

‘Good,’ Elvis said, ‘though if you don’t mind I uh think we’ve got some entertainin’ of our own to do don’t you think.’  

‘Right,’ Jerry said, ‘uh see you later.’

‘Later man,’ Elvis said, not even giving you a choice before he ushered you forward, taking you by the hand down towards your bedroom, though not before you shared one last look with Jerry.

It was an odd feeling, to have something knowing that at some point you’d inevitably have to let it go but it was a feeling made worse by the fact you weren’t sure you wanted to anymore. Because as much as it hurt Jerry to watch you do it, to be a fool, it hurt you just as much to know you were one.  

It hurts me to see him treat you the way he does, It hurts me to see you sit and cry, When I know I could be so true, If I had someone like you, It hurts me to see those tears in your eyes.

ELVIS TAGS 

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[violetganache42]

Ooooh, boy. This has been an announcement I have been dying to share for almost a year now, and I think this is the perfect time to make it because I'm not joking when I say this:

I'M GOING TO LAS VEGAS AND CALIFORNIA FOR THE FIRST TIME!

Okay, so there is a funny story on how that happened. One day during the spring last year, Mom was looking at dates for us to go see Garth Brooks in concert again and saw that he currently has concert residency in Las Vegas. Despite the initial debate on whether we should go or not considering the huge distance between there and our home, she ultimately bought the tickets for it because we've never been to Vegas before. And that's just only the beginning. lol

Later that same year, during the summer, Mom and I were running errands and talking about our upcoming trip to Vegas. She mentioned how this was gonna be the closest she'll be to California; it's her birth state and the last time she was there was a few decades ago, so she couldn't not go visit there again. Not even a second later, I simply replied, "✨Disneyland~.✨" Pizazz and all. XD She immediately said that she didn't even think of that at all, which had me laughing, and it quickly led to our trip becoming full-fledged family vacation plans. The planning was a gradual process because at the time, we were more focused on our second Orlando vacation in September and me staying with my older sister in Milwaukee from late December to mid-January while Mom was in London and Paris. With all of that out of the way, we've been finalizing our Las Vegas and California plans for the past few months; now, I can officially say we'll be on vacation from Apr. 24 to May 4.

I still cannot believe this is actually happening! I never thought I would end up going to the other side of the country for anything. And lemme tell you, there are a number of things I am already looking forward to checking out: the sights of Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, going to Toontown and Super Nintendo World, possibly visiting Mom's birth town! I am super excited!

[shesintoomanyfandoms]

It’s the summertime in Westport, Connecticut.

Elsewhere in the world, a war is being fought. The forces of good and evil collide, and unbeknownst to the woman, her son is about to die.

But no one is dying here.

Here, where plates of burnt cookies and peanut butter sandwiches in Tupperware containers and plastic cups with Kool-Aid litter the rooms. Stuffed animals of various horrendous monsters line the walkways.

May Castellan bakes cookies while her son takes his final breath.

She has no idea that he will never return home.

About a day later, in Westport, Connecticut, the air is humid and hot, but May is out and about  anyway. She’s getting ready to bake cookies. Her son’s favorite. His eyes were like his father’s, you know.

But somewhere else in the world, only about two hours away by car, another girl begins to speak. Her name is Rachel Elizabeth Dare, and she’s been taken over by the Oracle of Delphi. The son of Hades is finally not an outcast. Rachel becomes the first Oracle in a very, very long time.

Two hours away, a middle-aged woman collapses.

And one of two things happens in Westport, Connecticut.

May Castellan might have been baking cookies inside her home. When she collapsed, she might have hit her head against the counter on her way down, knocking her out. The cookies, left unattended, caught on fire. May might have died. The firemen, called when the neighbors noticed black smoke billowing from the residence of May Castellan, might have found her in the same place, still with a measuring spoon in her hand.

May Castellan might have woken up in a lobby in Las Vegas. She might have flexed her fingers a little, shocked and finally free of the Oracle’s curse. She might have numbly given the ferryman some cash out of her wallet. She might have appeared before the judges of the dead. They might have declared that ultimately, she had cared greatly for those around her, and had made a brave sacrifice in trying to host the Oracle. She might have been sent to Elysium.

She might have looked around at the host of other dead people, there in a paradise and very confused. A boy might have caught her eye. Barely an adult, with sandy blond hair and a scar down his face. He had blue eyes. Like his father. May Castellan might have approached carefully. She had seen her son in the face of so many people. Was this an illusion, too? She might have asked him, “Luke? Is that you?”

That might have happened.

But it didn’t.

A middle-aged woman collapses on a sidewalk in the heat of a Connecticut summer. Her neighbors call 911, scared that the crazy lady who lives nearby might have finally kicked the bucket. The ambulance arrives quickly, and the paramedics whisk May away to a nearby hospital. She finally wakes up, and begins to take solid foods again. May feels as if she is in a trance—finally without the Oracle’s curse, she doesn’t know what to do with herself. She has become the insane woman, the woman without a child or a job or friends or even an okay house. How does she go on from here?

Two hours away, a girl with fiery red hair and paint on her clothes and skin talks to a boy with pale skin and a skull ring. “She’s been freed,” the girl tells the boy. “I could sense her leaving.”

Two days later, the girl and the boy show up in May’s hospital room. They aren’t technically allowed to be there, but a little Mist goes a long way.

May looks at them suspiciously. “Who are you two?” she asks. “I don’t have any relatives other than my son, and he’s…” she lets that hang in the air for a second.

“I’m sorry, Ms. Castellan, but it’s true. Your son died a hero,” the boy says softly. The girl shoots him a look, but May needed the truth. She’s been living a lie for too long.

“We came to make sure that you were okay,” Rachel says softly. She makes eye contact with May, and a certain kind of understanding passes between them.

“You will make a wonderful Oracle,” May tells her firmly. “Do not doubt that. I was young and foolish. I made my choices. But you are stronger than I.”

“Thank you,” the girl says softly. 

“Now,” May says, “Can you two tell me more about my son?”

[lamaisongaga]

FASHION CREDITS: JAZZ & PIANO SHOW 4.0 PART I

Lady Gaga made a triumphant return to Las Vegas where she'll be staying until July to complete another round of her highly sought-after Jazz & Piano residency shows! And of course, she brought a whole new batch of costumes styled by Sandra Amador and Tom Eerebout along with her.

First, we‘re hopping onto our virtual plane where I‘ll be taking you to Marbella, Spain to once again meet with young fashion designer Adrián Manceras who‘s kind enough to let us take a look in his atelier where he crafted Gaga‘s opening number: a fabulous cocktail dress showered in champagne sequins, finest crystals and delicate fringe trimmings!

I can‘t help but notice how Gaga sticks to the same designer when it comes to the opening number‘s look. From headpiece down to the shoes. Yet, she changes the design every time she comes back to Vegas.

Here, she‘s donning yet another insane showgirl-inspired headdress with turkey feathers and Swarovski crystals by the ever-so talented Arturo Rios who sent me this image JUST for your eyes!

The Italian-American entertainer topped her look off with a new custom pair of Laruicci crystal statement earrings

Her favorite Jimmy Choo metallic silver Anouk stiletto pumps provided the finishing touches.

The choice of purple was as unexpected as the combination of sequins, feathers (provided by Mother Plucker Feather Company), and PVC. Yet, this look struck me the most, standing out in a sea of bold fashion statements!

Delving into La Maison Gaga reveals an intriguing history behind her glamorous wardrobe. LA-based designer Michael Costello has been crafting stunning caftans for Gaga for a decade. His journey with her began in 2014 when he designed a sequined piece similar to this one for her "Cheek to Cheek! Live" performance . This collaboration marked the start of a creative partnership that has since produced numerous iconic looks, each more dazzling than the last.

Michael also collaborated with Gladys Tamez Millinery on the halo-like black feather pillbox headpiece!

New York City-based heritage jewelry brand A.JAFFE created some of the earrings, including these teardrop stunners!

Gaga surprised her audience last night with a special rendition of "Americano". It‘s been 12 years since she performed that song!

For this act of the show, Perry Meek whipped out a stunning dress even Jessica Rabbit wouldn't pass upon.

Crafted from red crystal mesh, this dress features an off-the-shoulder hourglass silhouette, trimmed with red ostrich feathers. And it comes with a matching coat!

Her Harriet wired red feather fascinator is a hand-made piece by Carrie Jenkinson Millinery ($331.79), one of the UK's leading fashion milliners.

This white-gold crescent earring set surrounded by differently cut diamonds is another A.JAFFE design.

And I hope I’m not the only one who‘s drooling over these Jimmy Choo Romy crystal-encrusted red pumps.

Then, Gaga stuns on stage in a total Giorgio Armani look which comprises this plush black velvet strapless bustier column dress with crystal band embellishment ($4,777) and the Fall/Winter 2018 Privé Haute Couture pink ostrich feather coat she previously wore for her V Magazine 2019 cover!

Gaga's MUA Sarah Tanno-Stewart collaborated with Face Lace on all the differently designed crystal eye stickers for the residency!

LG debuted a bunch of new looks on her second night and the uber-talented Michael Costello had another wonder up his sleeve when he revealed this stunner to me yesterday morning - a custom sparkly black and gold sequin silk chiffon caftan with incorporated metal belt, shoulder pads, plunging neck and daring open sides, based on Michael's upcoming "DNA" collection!

He also created her matching custom ruched faux leather gloves and feather boa in collaboration with Mother Plucker Feather Company.

What's a good jazz stage look without a fun plummeted hat to top it off? British milliner Carrie Jenkinson Millinery made sure to exceed stagewear standards with her Spring/Summer 2024 Selina feather hat (£520).

Her go-to performance shoes: the timeless Jimmy Choo Anouk black patent leather pumps ($675).

Malaysian couture design house Rizman Ruzaini joined the game by crafting a show-stopping red chiffon cape dress showered in Swarovski crystals. Thanks so much for these exclusive behind-the-seams photos!

She also brought back her Larisa Barrera vintage 1993 crystal necklace.

Gaga gave us an epic performance of "La Vie En Rose", dressed in rose silk satin caftan-style layered dress with stripped coque feathers, custom-made for her by Ukrainian fashion label Santa Brands.

This look was completed with a bunch of stellar accessories, including the Carrie Jenkinson Millinery Spring/Summer 2024 Valencia exploding feather fascinator (£579)...

...the Swarovski Millenia octagon-cut crystal bib necklace...

... and the Cornelia James Melissa opera-length black velvet gloves (£160).

If the dress from the third night's opening seems familiar to you, it's because she's worn this custom Natali Germanotta x Debra Cooper blue sequin fringed cocktail number back in 2019 before!

This look got a black version of the aforementioned Arturo Rios turkey feather and Swarovski crystal headpiece.

It‘s Michael Costello‘s world and we‘re just living in it! His third custom dress for our girl's third night is this uuuuuultra sexy black satin number with one-shoulder caftan silhouette, trimmed with luxurious ostrich feathers by Mother Plucker Feather Company and featuring beaded appliqués on the shoulder and waist.

It was finished off with this vintage Philip Treacy 1996 black feather firework headpiece which has already been previously worn by Gaga back in London in 2015!

For the fourth show (June 29), LG brought out another Michael Costello x Mother Plucker Feather Company confection — a black-as-the-night satin caftan, showered in small jet crystals and trimmed with feathers.

It was only a matter of time before she brought out a fairytale headpiece by milliner Piers Atkinson.

From his archives, she opted for the Fall/Winter 2021 "Triptych" collection elevated black ostrich feather pompom fascinator with beaded tassels.

[beardedmrbean]

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Four Las Vegas teenagers accused in the fatal beating of their high school classmate have agreed to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter in a deal that will keep them from being tried as adults, lawyers said Thursday.

The teens originally were charged in January as adults with second-degree murder and conspiracy in the November death of 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis Jr. Cellphone video of the fatal beating was shared across social media.

The deal announced during a hearing Thursday before Clark County District Judge Tierra Jones calls for the four to be sent to juvenile court and face an undetermined length of imprisonment in a juvenile detention center. The deal was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Should any of the teens back out of the deal, then all four would again be charged in adult court, Chief Deputy District Attorney John Giordani said.

"The offer is contingent on everyone’s acceptance,” Giordani said.

The Associated Press is not naming the students because they were juveniles at the time of the Nov. 1, 2023, attack.

The four were among nine teenagers who were arrested in Lewis’ death. Lewis was attacked on Nov. 1 just off the campus of Rancho High School where all were students. Authorities have said the students agreed to meet in the alley to fight over a vape pen and wireless headphones that had been stolen from Lewis' friend. Lewis died from his injuries six days later.

Defense lawyer Robert Draskovich, representing one of the four defendants, called the deadly fight a tragedy, but said convicting the four students of murder as adults would have been a second tragedy.

“This negotiation enables my client to graduate high school, move on with his life and become a productive citizen,” Draskovich told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The attorney said he’ll ask at sentencing for his client to be released from custody with credit for time already served. Draskovich acknowledged that his client was among those who kicked Lewis while he was on the ground but said a jury also would have seen video showing at least one of the people in a group with Lewis had a knife.

Mellisa Ready, Lewis’ mother, told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas on Thursday that she was “dumbfounded” by the plea agreement. She said that she had heard from the Clark County district attorney's office that the teens were going to plead guilty to murder in the adult court system.

Giordani declined to comment after the hearing Thursday but provided a statement to AP from Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson’s office. It acknowledged Lewis’ mother’s comments and “the pain (she) is going through as she mourns the loss of her son.” But it said she had been informed last week about the terms of the negotiations.

Wolfson’s office defended the resolution of the case as a balance of “thoughtful consideration of the egregious facts” and potential legal challenges that prosecutors would have faced at trial.

The statement said juvenile court is “best equipped to punish the defendants for their heinous conduct” while also offering rehabilitation.

In Nevada, a teenager facing a murder charge can be charged as an adult if they were 13 or older when the crime occurred.

A homicide detective who investigated the case told a grand jury last year that cellphone and surveillance video showed Lewis taking off his red sweatshirt and throwing a punch at one of the students, according to court transcripts made public in January. The suspects then pulled Lewis to the ground and began punching, kicking and stomping on him, the detective said.

A student and a resident in the area carried Lewis, who was badly beaten and unconscious, back to campus after the fight, according to the transcripts. School staff called 911 and tried to help him.

[rickybaby]

After being on the internet for the last 48 hours, I am happy to announce Daniel is no longer everybody’s second favourite driver!!

The other driver fans hate him! The residents of Las Vegas hate him! The anti-hair loss people hate him! The people who thinks you need to be absolutely miserable to succeed hate him! Everybody hates him now!! We’re finally free!!!

[powerofelvis]

Sweets For My Sweet

Pairing: Elvis Presley x black!reader

Word Count: 7.9K

Summary: Vampires and Witches have been sworn enemies for centuries. This is the case for you and Elvis, the oldest vampire that has walked the earth since the beginning of time. You were hired by Colonel Tom Parker to keep his prized possession under his thumb. But, are you able to hold on to the century-long rivalry forever?

Warning(s): Vampire!Elvis, ANGST, talks with the colonel, slight blood kink (if you squint), death, lots of death, SMUT, unprotected sex, flashbacks to a past life, sexual frustration, and a little fluff at the end (if you wanna call it fluff)

A/N: This is the second installment of my sweet inspirations saga. This is NOT a follow-up to Sweet Inspiration (although I’ve gotten a few requests to follow up with that, which I will!). This fic is based off of Sweet Inspiration’s Sweets For My Sweet. If you haven’t listened to that song, you should! I don’t really like this installment simply because it’s my very first time writing about vampires, I’m a newbie on that but as always, I hope you guys enjoy ;)

masterlist.

Las Vegas. You were stuck in this shitty town for as long as you could remember. Your family migrated from the bloodline of the enslaved women who were executed in Salem trials of 1692. Your ancestor, Candy was a female servant who toiled away in a puritan household. Your ancestry went all the way back to Barbados, until she was enslaved and sent to the United States, where her mistress, Margaret taught her the art of witchcraft. Your entire family lineage was made up of nothing but witchcraft until it landed upon you. When your family migrated to Las Vegas in 1918, they stayed hidden in fear of being executed or enslaved like the ancestors before them, but yet, they quietly blended in with society until the public couldn’t remember that they even existed. 

This is where you reside, quietly learning and perfecting the craft that was passed down to you through generations of witches that existed before you. You were a part of a coven that originated in Vegas, The Lucky Seven as you would like to call yourselves. The Lucky Seven were a smaller part of the coven as you were a part of the Salem Black Enchantresses coven that made up the original ancestors like yours. You were a group of women who turned away from black magic and now spent their time hunting vampires who made their home in the seedy city. You would be lying if you said that you weren’t tired of chasing filthy bloodsuckers for a living, but you had to pay the bills. Your family has been chasing vampires even back in Salem, but they were using darker measures such as black magic to do it. 

Your coven resorted to physical measures to chase them, often using wooden stakes and crucifixes to do so. You were hired by different organizations and even the President at one time, but your world changed the moment that Colonel Tom Parker entered your life. The odd shaped man waltzed in like the arrogant bastard that he was, giving your sisters an irrefutable price that only you couldn’t turn down. The thing that you had to do was keep his prized possession, Elvis Presley under his guidance. He must have been crazy, thinking that you would be able to keep the strongest vampire that ever lived under his foot. It was no surprise that Elvis Presley was a vampire, in fact, he made it known that he was. 

From the beginning of his existence, Elvis Presley was causing chaos wherever he walked. His family was the original vampire coven who battled with the Salem Black Enchanteresses, even wiping out half of your bloodline with only a twinkle of an eye. It wasn’t a secret that you hated Elvis Presley with every bane of your existence, but he was also untouchable to you. Your family would scold you for taking the bribe, claiming that it was going to be the end of your coven if Elvis even knew who you were. You didn’t care though, the money seemed all too tempting to pass up, and the idea of seeing Elvis beg and plead for mercy at your feet made you fall at the opportunity. You knew that in the back of your mind, you would be foolish to think that you could take down the all-powerful vampire that caused so much pain to your family and the city, but you pushed that thought further away as you would meet with the colonel for the first time of many. 

“I hope you know that I won’t stop until the bastard is weak, right?” You say in front of the dirty man who hired you, rolling your eyes as the colonel tapped his fat fingers on the hardwood of his desk. “Oh, I expect nothing less, Y/N. That’s what I paid you for, yes?” His squeaky voice made you grimace with disgust as his eyes lingered on you a little too long for your liking. “He might die. I don’t think you understand, Colonel. If you’re asking me to use magic, even he can't withstand it for long periods of time.” You swore that you wouldn’t use black magic again, not even letting clients become aware that you ever could. They thought that maybe you were the type of witch who used tarot cards to tell the future, but it was only because they didn’t begin to know the half of power that you held. 

The colonel seemed to have researched you and your family because he knew about the magic that you inherited, asking you to face the bane of your existence. “I know all about your little black magic, Y/N. Do you know why I asked you to take this job? Because you are familiar with my boy. Your family is all connected with him, you have much more to lose and so does he.” The undertone of his voice sending chills up your body as you clicked your tongue. “I don’t have anything to lose except my life, Colonel. Elvis killed everything when he wiped out my lineage. And I don’t have anything to lose by snapping your neck with only a snap of my fingers.” You sat up in your chair as you leaned over his desk, whispering the last part of your sentence so only he could hear. 

The colonel didn’t seem phased, only cracking a smile when he saw how close you were. “If I’m dead, Y/N. You won’t be able to permanently defeat Mister Presley. Isn’t that what you want?” He was right. That was what you wanted, but you weren't ready to let him know how much you’ve trained for this exact opportunity. The colonel gave you all of the information that you needed, even giving you the ammo that he knew Elvis couldn’t resist, a beautiful woman. You had to attend one of his shows, dressed better than any other woman in hopes that you would catch his attention. After all, Elvis was riding so much on the high that came from stardom that he wouldn’t think twice about another woman that he could bed and then possibly kill. 

So, here you are at the International on one of the nights that he held his shows, tugging at your dress that made you uncomfortable, dolled up at the hands of your sister, Clem. Clementine was your closest sister, being the only one who understood your hatred for Elvis and why you decided to take the job in the first place. “I get why you have to do this, even if I’m not comfortable with the whole idea.” She said as he picked out your curls, making sure that none of them were out of place at the chance that you wouldn’t get the opportunity to see Elvis up close. The sheen from your bronze complexion glistened under the light, nerves getting the better of you as you realized that tonight was the night that your plan would begin motion. “I know you do, Clem. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to pull it off. There’s gonna be hundreds of women like me, but what if he doesn’t even choose me?” 

“Y/N. You are drop dead gorgeous. If Elvis doesn’t choose you, it just shows that he’s a mindless leech that needs to be wiped off of the planet.” She laughed, wiping away the remaining mousse that she put in your hair. You laughed at the memory from earlier, walking into the ballroom that held the show tonight. You sat at the nearest table that you could find that would be in his line of view. You scoffed at the women who were lining up in the room, seeing their excitement at being close to the man of the hour like he was some sort of God to them. You couldn’t blame them, he had them all under his spell, enchanting them with his thrusting hips and crooning voice. You weren’t going to be one of those women, in fact, when he came on stage moments later, you sat stoic in your chair while women who sat around they screamed and flailed their arms as he looked around the room. 

What a joke. 

You crossed your arms, sitting up in your chair as the show continued. His eyes roamed the crowd, seemingly as if he felt that someone important would be there tonight. You were sure that his eyes lingered in your direction longer than usual, his gaze burning into you as he took in your body. A smirk glided across his face as he turned away from your direction, continuing with the next song that he was performing. You could feel your heart accelerate as his cerulean hues continued lingering over your body, his crooning lighting a fire in your loins. You are not here for this, Y/N. Snap out of it. Although you hated his guts in every sense of the word ‘hate’, you conceded he was the most attractive man that you have ever laid eyes on. You never ever laid eyes on Elvis Presley in person, but the pictures did him no favors. 

His tanned body hugged that black Herringbone suit, sweat clumping up his slick and oily black hair as his eyes scanned the crowd as he bellowed out a ballad that had the entire crowd in awe. You had to admit that his voice was alluring, seemingly getting under his spell a little. Your body was betraying you, the hatred that you held for him swaying as he watched you intently as if he was sizing you up before devouring you whole. Like a predator to its prey, you slowly got sucked into his world. The song ended, breaking you out of a trance as Elvis disappeared behind the curtain. You hissed in anguish as you thought that maybe the colonel had set you up, knowing the power that Elvis held, you weren’t sure if you would be able to make it out of this mission with your devotion intact. 

You were stopped by a dark haired man, his shirt hugged his body a little too tightly as his arms sat by his side. You raised your brow as you stepped back a bit, seeing the exact same pendant that Elvis wore but it wasn’t jeweled with rubies, instead a beautiful emerald sat in the middle surrounded by diamonds that spelled out ‘TCB’. This must be one of his men, you thought as you eyed him cautiously. He smiled at you finally, his eyes crinkling but you could still see his eyes. “E.P. wants to see you.” He turned, leading you towards the back, doors littering the hallway as you followed cautiously. You cursed yourself that you didn’t come prepared, but in the back of your mind, you were happy. You were happy that he had chosen you, the plan was now setting the stage. 

You stood in front of a brown door that spelled out his name, your heart thumping in your chest as the man knocked on the door. “Hey E, I got the girl that you were talking about.” The door immediately opened and you were faced with the most graceful and attractive man that you’ve ever laid eyes on. His jawline was chiseled, stubble covering his jaw which led up to the bushy sideburns that sat impeccably on his face. For a moment, you forgot that you had a job to do as your eyes lingered on his face as he shined his bright white teeth at you. “Thanks Jer.” He stepped aside, allowing you to walk into the room before shutting the door behind you. It was finally happening, you were face to face with the man who tormented your family for centuries but all you could do was shyly stand in the middle of the room as he faced you. 

“What’s your name, sugar?” He briskly floated across the room, his fingers playing with your tight curls that laid on your shoulders. You played with your dress, goosebumps appearing on your skin as you eyed him with caution. “Y/N. My name is Y/N.” You whimpered out, seemingly under some sort of spell that he had casted upon you when he was on stage. “That’s so pretty, mama. d’ya know why I asked for you?” He was standing behind you, you melting into his embrace as he continued to toy with you. His fingers moved away from your hair, now resting on your neck. Elvis could smell the fresh blood pumping through your veins, trying to hold himself together. You smelled so sweet to him, his damned soul begging for just a little taste, but he wanted to wait. 

All good things come to those who wait. 

“I’m sure you’re willing to tell me, Mister Presley.” Your fingers were gripping your dress tighter, nearly ripping the material apart. He turned you to face him, his cerulean eyes burning a fire within you that you never knew you had. His fingers tilted your head up so that you looked into them, a sly smile spreading across his deadly lips as he stared so deep into your soul, you could feel him penetrating you without physically doing so. “I finally found you, my love. I know who you are. You look just like her.” Your brow raised in confusion as you stepped away from him. “H-how do you know who I am, Mister Presley? I’ve never seen you before in my life.” You turned away from him, the fear in your heart made you stand where you were as you secretly hoped that he didn’t know what your plan was. 

“Candy. You look exactly like my darling. I’ve waited nearly a century for her to return to me.” He turned you around to face him once more, his hands caressing your face as you looked up into his eyes once again. You knew that he knew Candy, he fought her personally when she was alive. However, you didn’t know that he was romantically involved with her. “Candy was your—what?” Elvis’ cool fingers moved up your throat, placing his chin into your shoulder. “You mean you ain’t ever heard about me and Candy? She was burned at the stake not because she was a witch, baby. Her witchy friends knew that she was my woman. I fed from her, she fed from me. She didn’t wanna do this witch lingo anymore, so they killed her. They killed her and sent her burned heart to me. Her so-called friends.” 

You were appalled that all of this was even true. That was not the story that you were told, in fact, that was farthest from the truth. The lie that your family told you that Candy was murdered by Elvis and that he ate her heart was all a sham. “So you didn’t kill Candy? Everything I heard about you were lies?” You turned around to face him, placing your hand on his chest as you were still cautiously looking at the man. You didn’t know if you should trust him, you were on a mission. You just weren’t sure if the mission would happen as easily as you anticipated. “I would have never killed the love of my life, little one. She was my bride, the only witch that I could tolerate. You don’t think that I don’t know that the son of a bitch that’s supposed to manage me hired you? To kill me?” 

Your heart stopped in its tracks, your body language telling Elvis all that he needed to know. He was old, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew that the colonel wanted him controlled like an animal, following only his instructions on who to kill and how to kill them. “It’s no secret then. Yes, I was hired to control you, and I have no problem with killing you. Only because you were rumored to wipe out my bloodline. I grew up learning to hate you and your kind. That’s the only thing I know.” You pushed him away, turning around to face the door. You weren’t sure anymore about anything. However, you also didn’t trust Elvis either. “How do I know that I can trust you? Trust that you’re not lying to save your own ass. That you wouldn’t kill me when you had the chance?” 

Elvis stepped away from you, laughing underneath his breath. “If you want to kill me, do it. I won’t do a thing, after all, this vampire shit is getting old. I'm tired of outliving everyone that I cared about.” You turned to face him once again, noticing that Elvis was serious. He couldn’t be serious, right? There’s no way that this man was eager to die, but in your heart, you knew that he was pushing you to see what you would do. “Come on then, little one. Let’s see if your powers are as powerful as these witches claim. Hit me with your best shot and then I’ll explain everything.” Elvis tapped his chest, growling as his lips snarled like a wild animal—fangs glistening under the light. 

You gasped as he walked towards you, his face as demonic like a beast starved for its next meal. You backed away from him, whispering creole under your breath, black smoke rising from your hands as you tried to control the situation. You managed to speak incantations, placing your hands up to his body. Elvis immediately flew across the room, hitting the wall as he slid down. His eyes widened at you, blood pooling out of the side of his mouth as he chuckled out in happiness. “You are Candy. You’re her incarnation, I know her magic anywhere.” You rolled your eyes, looking at him as your hands still pressed him against the wall. “I don’t believe you.” You continued muttering incantations as your hand moved around his neck, picking him up off of the floor. 

Elvis struggled against your hand, clawing at your arm before he managed to get your hand free. “Shit!” You gasped as he wrapped his hand around your throat, pinning you down on the floor. You groaned in pain, placing your foot against his stomach, flipping him over underneath you. At that moment, your birthmark that was shaped like a moon crescent was revealed to him. His hand eased around your throat as his eyes lingered on the mark, his mouth agape as he pushed you away. You were going in for the kill, but you immediately ceased as you noticed that his fingers were tracing your birthmark. “What now?” You asked, pulling your dress over the mark, covering yourself from his greedy eyes. 

“You have the same birthmark as Candy. You really are her incarnation. You came back to me, love.” Elvis spoke, knowing that you still didn’t believe him. He waited centuries for his lover to return, but you knew that it couldn’t be you. “I know you want to kill me. I know you don’t believe me, but listen to me when I say this, you are her. You have the same fire that she had, the same mannerisms, everything.” You stared at him as if he was crazy, but you knew that he wouldn’t lie to you. “Tell me everything you know.” You whispered as you stood up from your position on the ground, putting your hand out to help him up. “The only way I could let you see for yourself is to bite you. Are you willing to let me do that, mama?” 

You were weary, not really planning on being fed on but you nodded your head. Elvis whisked behind you before you could blink, your curly locks blowing under his windy movements, revealing your neck to him. You took a deep breath as his fingers ran across your neck, goosebumps appearing on your skin as you gave him silent permission to feed from you. He growled once again, your guard shaking as you closed your eyes. He sank his fangs into your neck, earning a gasp from you as your eyes opened once again. At that moment, you saw memories that you didn’t know that you had. 

You were getting up from the ground, wiping the blood from your mouth as you faced him. His animalistic nature shifted back into his charming persona as he helped you up from the ground. “Did I hurt you, my love?” His arms wrapped around your waist as he leaned in pressing his blood covered lips to yours. You were happy, finding love in one of the grotesque ways possible. Your sisters turned their back on you, promising that you would soon regret loving their sworn enemies. Yet, you didn’t care. “Yeah, but I’m stronger than you think, E. Do you think I’ll be ready to face them? They taught me everything that I know. Before them, I was only a slave who couldn’t read or write. I can’t just turn against them.”

At that moment, Elvis smiled. “You’re ready. Once we defeat them, you’ll never have to hide again. You’ll become my bride. Hell, you’re already my bride, mama. We will rule this world where vampires and witches can co-exist without wanting to kill each other. We will show these humans that we aren’t animals or demons. Your sisters will come around, I promise you.” You were weary, but you believed him when he stared at you with his soft blues. He wanted to protect you. He wanted you to be his wife and he would do anything to ensure that you are happy with your family and with him. That was all that you needed to see before you nodded your head. “Alright, I’m ready.” 

You gasped out in pain, but the pleasure was also there as he continued showing you the memories that were buried in your soul. The next memory that you saw brought tears to your eyes, ignoring all of the pleasure that you were feeling from his touch. 

Your sisters stood over you, chanting incantations that you didn’t quite understand. You screamed out in pain, begging for mercy as their magic ripped you apart from the inside. You could hear Elvis screaming your name. “Candy! You can fight them! Don’t give up, darlin’! Please, I love you!” You sobbed as you knew that you were powerless against the dark magic that was being used against you. You had given in to their whims, looking over at your lover as he was held back by his vampire brethren, his growls soothing you as you mouthed ‘I love you’ to him. You were surrounded by darkness, only hearing Elvis as your heart stopped. You were at peace, the peace that you craved with Elvis and your sisters but you could only dream that one day that peace will come true. 

Your heaven was with Elvis, cuddled into his arms as he told stories about his life. Soon enough, you would come back to him. You were never going to leave his side again. As you wait, your bronze complexion shone in the sun as you took in the surroundings that would be your home. “Elvis, I will be coming home. Wait for me.” You sobbed as you sat down in the soft grass until your time would come. You could only wait, and so you did…

You gasped as he pulled away, lapping up the holes that he punctured into your neck. “Did you see? Did you see everything?” You turned around to face him, your face covered in tears as you nodded. “They killed me. They killed me and tore me away from you. I believe you.” You sobbed as he pulled you into his arms. “Everything that they taught me was a lie. Vampires and witches can exist in the same world, but they don’t want that. How can I even go on believing in my powers if they weren’t even real to begin with?” You shook your head as you pushed him away. You knew you had to report to the colonel, but you didn’t even have any information for him. 

“I have to tell the colonel that I have you under my control, but clearly I don’t. What should we do?” Elvis grabbed you by the hand, tilting your head up to look at him. He had the same blue eyes as he did in your vision, soft and welcoming. “Don’t worry, darlin’. I have a plan to get rid of him for good.” You nodded your head at his words, allowing him to tell you everything that he had planned. 

Your meeting with the colonel was after you met with Elvis. “So Miss Y/N, is he under your control?” You bit your tongue, glaring at that man who wanted to hurt Elvis. “Yep, he never saw it coming. He thought he would be able to kill me like all of the other women that he came across, but as I always do, I proved him wrong. You should be able to have him do your bidding now.” You chuckled, staring at your nails so that you wouldn’t have to stare at the wretched man. “I knew I made a good choice by choosing you. You have to continue using your powers on him. We have a lot to do.” He laughed, sliding the money across the desk. 

You grabbed the duffel bag that was filled with the money that he promised you, standing up on your feet as you walked to the door. “You’re right, we have lots to do. Thank you kindly, colonel.” You smiled softly, opening the door to his office before stepping out. Once the door was closed, you laid on it, sighing as you shook your head. “Lots to fucking do.” You spat as you walked away from the door, smirking as you thought about the newfound plan that you had made with the devil himself. 

Clementine knew something was wrong once you returned home, throwing the duffel bag on the ground before stomping off to your room. “Y/N, what’s wrong?” She followed as she stood at your doorway before you could shut it. “Everything is a lie, Clem. Elvis never killed Candy. He was in love with her. You should have seen what I saw! He wanted us to live in peace! But I have to keep him under my control to appease this slimeball that he calls a manager.” Clementine stared at you for a while before she took you by the hand. “You know everything, don’t you?” You stared back at her in shock, pulling your hand away from her. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me that I was her this entire time? Everything that I was taught and know has been a lie and yet you knew?!” 

She nodded her head as she walked into your room, sitting down on your bed. “Mama told me the truth before she died, Y/N. She said that the only way to protect you was to hide it from you. I didn’t know that you would meet him again. What are you gonna do?” You knew exactly what you were going to do and yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to tell her the exact plan. “Nothing right now, I need time. Just give me a little bit of time, Clem.” She shook her head at you, leaving your room to allow you to have your time. The words of Elvis played again and again in my mind, different lives could be ruined, yet you didn’t care. You had finally returned to Elvis and he had returned to you. If only things weren’t so complicated. 

The following day, you arrived at the International, butterflies fluttering in your stomach at the fact that you were going to see Elvis once again. Things had changed between the both of you overnight, but you weren’t really enthusiastic at the idea that you would use your black magic again. After seeing what effect that it had on Elvis, you were back to square one, swearing off using black magic as it could harm the man that you were starting to have feelings for. Feelings, already? You really were a pushover. You arrived at his penthouse suite, being pulled into the tall man’s arms as he hugged you carefully. Elvis knew that although you were his reincarnated lover, you were still human. He could still crush you if he used all of his strength, so he held back even if it hurts him. 

“Everything go okay with the colonel?” Elvis sat you down on the couch in his suite, slithering flawlessly next to you. “I would like to think that it did. He doesn’t have a clue that you’re not under any spell, so you’re gonna have to play the part flawlessly. We can’t afford to have this plan backfire on us.” You chuckled, turning to look into his blue eyes that were burning holes into you. “Do you remember everything that we discussed?” The memories of last night played in your mind as you recalled the plan at hand. “You’re gonna go meet with the colonel after all of our meetings.” Your mouth dropped as you realized that this wasn’t the only time that you would meet with that con man. 

“Have you lost your mind, Elvis? I was only supposed to meet with him ONCE! How am I supposed to keep this act up when I have to see him every night?” You crossed your arms, turning your back to him. Elvis wasn’t having it, turning you back around to face him. His lanky fingers held on to your shoulders as he bent down slightly to catch your gaze. “Darlin’, I ain’t putting you in harms way. All I’m asking is that you put him off of my trail. I’ll handle the rest, you’ll see.” His southern drawl nuzzled against your bones as you mindlessly nodded at his words as if he had you under his spell. “Okay, I’ll do anything for you.” You muttered, the stubborn look on your features made him smile. 

“That’s my girl. Now, here’s what we are going to do.” Elvis began, still massaging your shoulders as he stared into your chocolate eyes. “You’re gonna use some of your magic on me little by little each day, not a whole lot to weaken me. I’ll feed off of you to get stronger, healing the bites afterward.” You held up your hand as you tilted your head to look at him, brow raised. “Now why are you feeding off of me?” Elvis laughed as he shook his head. “I get stronger feeding off of witches, which is why I used to hunt your kind back in the day. I’m not going to hurt you and I can also tell that it brings pleasure to ya. Don’t think I ain’t notice how wet you get when I’m biting into ya.” 

You blushed at his words, stupidly hoping that he didn’t catch on to your arousal at the feeling of him feeding from you. “Shut up. Continue what you were saying, Elvis?” You rolled your eyes as you hid behind your hands. “I’ll pretend that you have me under your spell, doing a little here and there for the colonel, while you also work your magic with him.” You pulled your hand down as you nodded, knowing that you wouldn’t have to use black magic with the colonel because he was only human. A little phony spell and he would be wrapped around your finger. “Go on, what’s the catch?” 

“The catch, mama, is that once I get strong enough, I’ll kill him. And we will take back what we worked hard for. I know what you’re thinking, baby. We won’t harm your family or anyone that you care about, but it won’t be easy once they figure out that we are working together.” You thought about your coven. You were upset, rightfully so, they lied to you. However, you weren’t upset enough to want to harm them. You breathe out a sigh of relief that Elvis didn’t want to harm the ones that you loved, he only wanted to make progress between his kind and yours. “Okay, Elvis. Count me in.” 

So the days continued as they always did with you meeting with Elvis, you using a little magic on him, and him feeding from you. Each time, your arousal would pool into your panties to the point that you eventually decided to forgo panties for these meetings. As Elvis fed from you, you could feel a piece of you longing for him to make love to you, smearing blood over your body as he took you again and again. However, he would always stop before you could reach an orgasm. Needless to say, you were extremely sexually frustrated. Elvis could tell, always promising you that once the colonel was dead, he would fuck you. You would use this frustration on the colonel, snapping at him as he used witty phrases as you both conversed. 

“Listen colonel, I know I told you that I would keep your boy in check, but that doesn’t mean you have me in check. I’m doing this as a favor for you. Don’t forget I’m a fucking witch, I’ll have you dancing like those chickens.” You stood up from your chair, snapping your finger in his face. As you snapped your fingers in his face, he was silent. “Alright dear, I’ll keep the comments to a minimum but don’t forget that you work for me.” He smirked, sitting back in his chair as he tilted his hat to you. You rolled your eyes as you left his office, grumbling under your breath about how he was a penguin shaped bastard. Your frustrations were also taken out on your sisters, arguing with them about the simplest things, before you eventually let it slip that you knew everything. 

They didn’t know what to say, giving you everything that you needed to know that they were hoping that you didn’t find out. Clementine stood on the side, not saying a word as you packed up your things. “I can’t stay here, Clem. I can’t stay in a place where my sisters are lying to me!” You yelled at her, immediately feeling the guilt of taking your frustrations out on her. “Well, where are you gonna go, baby? I hope you’re not going to stay with that blood-.” You snapped your eyes to her, causing her to close her mouth. “Yes, I’m going to stay with Elvis. At least he’s not lying to me.” Clementine took you by the hand, shaking her head. “You don’t know if he is or if he isn’t. Remember baby, he’s our sworn enemy. You mustn’t get too close to him.” 

If only she knew. You didn’t say a word as you snatched your hand from her, grabbing your bags before leaving the house. Elvis was thrilled that you were staying with him, making sure that everything was to your liking. Although he didn’t eat much human food, he did ensure that you had your strength as you both planned the final stage of your plan. It was Elvis’ last show for a while at the International, the perfect decoy for the destruction of the colonel. You sat next to the colonel and the owner of the hotel, playing it off that you hated Elvis and that you didn’t want to be there. What a bunch of fools. 

Elvis entered the stage, his charismatic energy taking the room by surprise. He was dressed in all black, which made you and every woman in that room crazy with arousal. The only difference between you and those women was that he belonged to you. You were his and he would become yours tonight. It was insane how you were back in the same room as you were weeks ago, with hatred in your heart for the man. Now, you were madly in love with him. Ain’t it funny how things change? “He’s been a very good boy lately, hasn’t he Y/N?” You rolled your eyes as you turned to face the men, a stiff smile on your face. “He sure has, colonel. I’m glad that I could use my services.” 

You turned away, mouthing a spell under your breath as you tapped the colonel’s knee. The time was coming, you could feel it. As the show neared its end, Elvis began his speech. “It sure has been nice performing for all you nice folks, but this is the last show that I’m ever performing here.” The crowd gasped in disappointment, causing the colonel to grunt out in surprise. “His last show? Y/N, what is he talking about?” You turned to face him, chanting your spell a little louder but only he could hear as the look on his face changed from surprise to shock. “He said that it was his last show, Tom. I believe that you heard him.” 

At that moment, Elvis revealed his fangs to the crowd of people. Screams were heard all around the room as people began to leave their tables, screaming for their lives. His coven of vampires all appeared from all around, tackling the unexpected people as they tried to flee. You looked around the room, seeing people on the ground, collateral damage for the real target. You grimaced at the sight of vampires feeding on humans, but you turned to the colonel, pushing him back down in his seat as he tried to run away. “You’re gonna stay right here, Tom. You’re not really a colonel are you? You see, I did a little background on you myself. You’re not even American. You piece of shit.” You whispered in his ear as his eyes widened. 

“And guess what I did with this information? Just guess.” You laughed as you pulled his hat off of his head, placing it on your head. You turned around facing Elvis who was now making his way over to you, his face covered in blood from the patrons that he fed from. He placed his hand into yours, kissing your knuckles as he turned to face the now-shocked man who sat below you. “That’s right, colonel. I showed your so-called attraction who you really were, and from the sight of it, he didn’t like it.” You chuckled, picking the colonel up with your free hand, holding him by the throat. He struggled under your grasp, trying to form words. “M-my boy, she’s lying! You can’t trust a witch over the man who made—who gave you everything.” 

You laughed, chanting more of your spell causing his mouth to shut. “You’ve been lying to me, Andreas. Y/N told me everything. But you also don’t know that she’s been by my side the whole time. You see, Y/N is my lover. Do you think that she’s gonna betray me by working for you? I already knew all about your little plan, but guess what? It didn’t take long to convince my little girl to betray you.” He laughed, tapping your shoulder which caused you to release the poor man from your hold. He replaced your hand with his, picking him off of the ground. “I’ve been waiting for this exact moment to ruin ya, now it’s here.” He growled, digging his nails into the man’s throat before growling at him, revealing his fangs. 

You stepped away, turning your head away as you heard the colonel’s screams as Elvis ripped his throat out from him. Silence filled the room as you turned back to see the colonel dead in the booth that he was sitting in, dread filling your bones as you noticed the damage around the room as dead bodies were strewn about. Elvis turned back to face you, tilting your head up to look into those blue eyes once again as you fell underneath his spell. “Are ya okay, mama? I didn’t scare ya, did I?” You shook your head as you became lost in his gaze, your hands running up his chest as he pulled you into a kiss. You could taste the metallic taste of blood on your tongue, sending you into a frenzy as you latched on to his body. 

Elvis groaned into the kiss, swooping you up in his arms as he walked through the chaos of vampires running amuck in the ballroom. You caressed his jawline, still staring into his eyes before he found a door along the long hallway that adorned the backstage. He shut the door, throwing you on the bed before he was before you again, his fingers running down your body as he smirked in happiness. “It’s finally done, darling. The world is ours.” He ripped the dress that once adorned your body off, connecting his lips to your throat. You moaned out in pleasure, the burning feeling of his lips on you sent fire through your body. You huffed out in impatience as you pulled his jumpsuit off of his body, begging for him to touch you. 

“I told you that I would please you once this is done, so that’s what I’m gonna do, mama.” He was inside of you before you could adjust, his hips thrusting into you at such a frenzy that you felt that he would break you apart. Visions of you and Elvis making love by the fire played in front of your eyes, moans filling the room as you melted into his embrace. You could tell that Elvis was holding back, his blood soaked lips smearing all over your body. “It’s okay, I’m okay, I promise.” You moaned out giving him permission to use his super speed. He looked into your eyes, fear and uncertainty showing itself to you. You giggled as you caressed his face, nodding your head to him. “You can use it.” 

WOOSH. WOOSH. WOOSH. That was the only noises that you could hear as Elvis pounded into you almost at lightning speed, his hands gripping your body in a vice grip, grunting in your ear. You whimpered, seemingly in slow motion as you held on to him. The bed squeaked from underneath you, headboard hitting the wall at such force that it dented. You felt so much pleasure, eyes rolling into the back of your head as you clawed down his skin. “Fuck, you feel as good as I remember, mama. Fuck, you’re such a good girl for me.” He grunted as he pounded into you, sinking his teeth into your neck once again. You screamed out in ecstasy as you closed your eyes, the pleasure of him fucking into you mixing with the endless pleasure of him feeding from you. 

You felt as if you would fall apart at the seams, moaning his name out repeatedly as if it was only the both of you in the world. “That’s right, mama. Tell the whole world who you belong to.” You could feel your orgasm coming, much faster than you wanted. “Oh fuck! Oh fuck! I’m cumming, Elvis! I’m cum-.” You chanted as your orgasm crashed around you, holding onto him tightly as he continued to fuck up into you. “That’s it, mama. That’s it.” He praised, moving his hands from your side to hold on to the headboard. He grinded harshly into you, growling in pleasure as he tore the headboard right off of the hinges. You gasped as he threw the headboard effortlessly to the floor, tearing to many pieces as he growled animalistically before you. 

If you weren’t so turned on, you would be afraid but it was Elvis. He was your love, your everything. You betrayed everything that you could have ever known to be with him. You held onto his face, looking into his eyes again as he came to his senses. “It’s just me, baby. It’s okay.” You whispered, pressing your lips to his cheek as he slowed down his thrusts, slowly pounding into you again. The overstimulation was prevalent at this moment, your pussy clenching around him. The feeling of you clenching around him made him cum inside of you, coating your walls with his seed as he roared out in pleasure. You continued kissing his jaw, whispering honeyed words into his ear as he came down from his orgasm. 

“Fuck, I didn’t realize you had that in you, baby. You completely destroyed the bed.” You laughed, kissing his cheek as you pulled away from him. He looked over his shoulder as he took in the damage from the headboard, snorting as he pulled out of you. You groaned from his emptiness, sitting up in the bed before following his eyes to the corner of the room. “I’m gonna have to definitely be careful next time with ya, mama. I lost control for a second.” Elvis crawled over next to you, pulling you into his arms. You sighed, thinking about how you were going to convince your sisters that vampires weren’t all bad. 

“Penny for ya thoughts, baby?” You rolled your eyes, knowing that Elvis could feel your mood shift. “Just thinking about how I will convince my sisters that we can exist with vampires. We’ve spent centuries hunting your kind and yet, we have nothing to show for it.” Elvis tilted your head up to look into his eyes, only this time you weren’t under his spell. He was under yours. “Baby, your sisters will come around. I’m yours now, and you’re never leaving me again. They’ll have to get used to me. Not to mention, with our history, it will take some time.” He laughed, making you shake your head as you laid against his chest. “I would like to see you try to convince them before they come at you with a wooden stake.” 

“I sure hope that you won't let them kill me. I would be one pissed off vampire.” You knew that it would take some getting used to, sleeping with the enemy, but you were ready for whatever came your way. “Well since we are really doing this now, shouldn’t you tell me what the plan is now? The colonel is dead, what now?” Elvis grew quiet, looking down at you with a smirk before he crawled on top of you again. “I know you’re not about to fuck me again. I’m sore, Elvis.” He shook his head, laughing before his features grew serious. “What happens now is we show ourselves to the world. You’ve been hiding, I’ve been hiding. We need to let the world know that vampires and witches aren’t demonic entities, we were or are humans. Since my coven is the only vampires who can live longer than others, we should get them all together.” 

You were surprised to say the least, not really thinking about showing your coven off to the world. You were the only witch that the public knew of, dread filling your body once again as you thought about telling your sisters that they didn’t have to hide anymore. “Let’s just start with telling my sisters that we are together, yeah?” Elvis shook his head, tongue in cheek as he nodded. “Let’s start with that.” As you snuggled with the man that you began hating, you could only see their faces when you walked hand-in-hand with him. Will they hate him more at first? Yes. However, you didn’t care. You would rise again, with the power of your ancestors before you. With Elvis in your corner, your coven will once rise again. 

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[black-arcana]

LZZY HALE: 'If It Weren't For SKID ROW In My Bones, I Would Not Be The Rocker I Am Today'

HALESTORM's Lzzy Hale says that "there will be blood left on the stage" after she performs with SKID ROW later this spring.

The 40-year-old singer, who has fronted her band HALESTORM for more than two and a half decades, will handle the vocal duties for SKID ROW for four shows only after the group's fourth frontman since Sebastian Bach's departure — "Swedish Idol" contestant Erik Grönwall — quit the band to focus on his health.

Earlier today (Friday, March 29),Lzzy shared an admat for her four appearances with SKID ROW and she wrote in an accompanying message: "This is totally wild! I can't believe my VHS audition tape finally made it in the mail! (I kid, I kid)

"I started listening SKID ROW when I was a teenager growing up on the east coast in central Pennsylvania. They were one of the only bands at that time that truly bridged the gap for my love of 80s big choruses and riffs, but had the same poignant dirt and grime that was seeping into the cracks of my mind during the 90s. By the early 00s HALESTORM was well coming into its own, inspired by these powerful songs that helped me unlock a door within myself as a young musician. I can say without a second thought that if it weren't for SKID ROW in my bones, I would not be the rocker I am today.

"And this summer, my world turns full circle. Because not only am I able to share the stage as acting front person for this integral band, but even more importantly, I get to call these boys my chosen family. No matter how much we both tour, or how much time has gone by…we light up when we see each other. They have seen me through my rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, all while cheering me on. Time, space, history, age…are all relative, irrelevant and elastic cuz we are all just astronauts cut from the same cloth, worshipping the same magic that is this music. I'm so grateful for their support of me in my career, and as a fellow human.

"Love you guys! There will be blood left on the stage!"

In the comments section below Lzzy's post, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan wrote, "Sister from another mister", while SKID ROW guitarist Scotti Hill added, "This is going to be so much fun!"

SKID ROW shows with Lzzy Hale on vocals:

May 17 - Walker’s Bluff Casino Resort – Carterville, IL May 18 - Riverside Casino & Golf Resort – Riverside, IA May 31 - Nugget Casino Resort – Sparks, NV June 01 - Hard Rock Live Sacramento – Wheatland, CA

HALESTORM covered SKID ROW's "Slave To The Grind" for the 2011 EP "ReAniMate: The CoVeRs eP". The band has also performed the track live, as can be seen in the video below.

Grönwall, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021, is immunocompromised, which made touring difficult.

"I'm getting stronger and healthier every day but after consulting my doctor I need to allow myself more time to recover, which I can't do as the lead singer of SKID ROW," he said in a statement. "That's why I have reached the tough decision to move on."

The SKID ROW members said in a statement that they are "proud of what they have created and accomplished with Erik over the past two years" and "wish nothing but the best to him and his health. To celebrate the last two years, the band will be releasing a live album that perfectly captures this moment of time in the band's 35-plus-year history, to be announced soon."

In September 2021, just four months before he joined SKID ROW, Grönwall released his new cover version of "18 And Life" via all streaming platforms.

In late March 2022, SKID ROW released its first single with Grönwall, "The Gang's All Here". The song is the title track of the band's latest album, which arrived in October 2022 via earMUSIC.

SKID ROW played its first show with Grönwall on March 26, 2022 at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as the support act on the rescheduled dates for SCORPIONS' "Sin City Nights" residency.